Re-ordering Ethics and Knowledge Production in Conflict- and Disaster-Affected Contexts

Data underpins global order and shapes knowledge and action. In conflict and disaster settings, data collection is repeated and invasive, with ethics procedures deployed to mitigate harm. Yet, little is understood about how ethics and knowledge production work in practice or how to more effectively ground research practices in their cultural and historic contexts.

This project examines ethics in practice in three intensively researched conflict- and disaster-affected regions. Co-designed by Global Southern and Northern researchers, it will hold exploratory workshops with local research actors with the aim of understanding the data they collect, relevant ethics procedures, and the extent to which local scholars are involved in, or written out of, knowledge production about conflict and disaster.

The project will enhance understanding of how knowledge and ethics are ordered in ‘the field’. It will produce policy, academic, and educational resources to support ethical decision-making by those engaged in conflict and disaster-related research.

Principal Investigator: Dr Birte Vogel, University of Manchester