Description
This paper is a proposal for embracing ‘vulnerable research’ as a way to reckon with doing research that is political, ethical, and honest about the role of research in perpetuating global harms. I call this vulnerable research, because this approach requires letting go of the justifications upon which much of academia relies, and also the authority and privilege being an academic lends us. This process is one which I am attempting to navigate, whilst also being a precarious researcher who is also fighting to enter this space. Rather than suggesting a new research method, this article’s contribution is to bring together and engage with three different but related literatures that are all asking questions of research methodologies in their own way. Roughly, these literatures approach ethical questions from a position of reflexivity, decolonisation, and climate politics. To these literatures I also add my experience and difficulties with researching vulnerability and climate politics whilst being committed to feminist and decolonial principles, that include avoiding the reproduction of the harms I am studying.
