Working with Marginalised, Vulnerable or Privileged Groups

Working with Marginalised, Vulnerable or Privileged Groups

By now you will be well aware that fieldwork in the developing world can present difficult practical, ethical and personal challenges. When the subjects of research are marginalised groups,1 the challenges look even more foreboding. How should you behave when you are interacting with people who are obviously much poorer than you, or who are minority ethnic groups, lower-class women, or children? How will they react to you? We must be sensitive if we are to carry out ethical and worthwhile research involving marginalised peoples. hooks (1990: 151–152) indicates that for too long research on the marginalised has been carried out in an oppressive manner:

The challenge for researchers is to ‘find ways in which the marginalised can enter our discourses in their own genres and their own terms so that we can learn to hear them’ (Krog, 2011: 384). Effort should also be made to ensure that our research is not merely a self-serving exercise. This can be achieved in various ways, from nurturing respectful and friendly relationships with our participants, to forms of activism, as will be discussed later in this chapter.

[Page 189]Another group with whom we have to take special care in our research are the privileged – those who are rich and/or powerful. While some people may feel that research involving the poor is more of an immediate priority in Development Studies than research targeting the rich, this overlooks the importance of understanding the culture and practices of those occupying powerful positions, who, due to their positions, may have potential to do considerable good. Research on powerful institutions can help us gain a deeper understanding of how the lives of the poor are structured by decisions made within institutions – such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Trade Organization (WTO) – seemingly so distant from them. ‘Studying up’ is therefore now considered a highly credible form of research as it allows us to gain a greater understanding of how differentiation and power are reproduced.

While a section of this chapter is thus devoted to researching the elite and powerful, the first four sections will examine special considerations for researchers working with groups whose members are often marginalised or vulnerable: that is, children, women, minority ethnic groups and the poor. We realise that there are other marginalised social groups with whom researchers may come into contact – the physically or mentally disabled and the aged are obvious groups not specifically discussed due to space constraints – but we try to make up for this somewhat by suggesting general principles to apply when working with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups (see Box 10.5). In choosing to focus on these groups we also do not wish to suggest that children, women, minority ethnic groups and the poor are universally oppressed, nor that men, adults, majority ethnic groups and the very rich are universally oppressive. Rather, members of the former social groups are more often in less powerful positions, and thus we must face up to our responsibilities as researchers to ensure that our research is carried out in ways which uphold their dignity, does not exploit them, and accurately portrays their voices and their struggles.

...