Re-ordering ethics and knowledge production in conflict and disaster-affected contexts

This British Academy-funded project interrogates the processes and politics of data collection and knowledge production in conflict and humanitarian emergencies to understand how these contribute to conceptualisations of global order.

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: the Balkans, Colombia and Nepal.

Co-designed by Global Southern and Northern academics, the project 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 humanitarian emergency research.

People

• Dr Birte Vogel (Principal Investigator)
• Prof Larissa Fast (Co-Investigator)
• Dr Nimesh Dhungana (Co-Investigator)
• Nemanja Džuverović, University of Belgrade (Serbia)
• Maria Lucia Zapata, Javeriana University (Colombia)
• Neeti Aryal Khanal, Tribhuvan University (Nepal)

Steering Commitee

Jessica Field

Peter Locke

Bertrand Taithe

Chika Watanabe

Published Outputs

Vogel, B., Džuverović, N., Tripathi, S., Kušić , K., Zapata Cancelado, M. L., Ramachandran, S., Dhungana, N., & Taithe, B. (2024). Upholding Hierarchies of Knowledge Production: Mundane Obstacles to Global International Relations. International Studies Perspectives, https://doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekae025

 

The project team also produced reports with key findings from each country:

 

Dhungana, N., Aryal Khanal, N., Vogel, B., Fast, L., Džuverović, N. and Zapata

Cancelado, M.L. (2024). Unpacking Ethical Dilemmas and Knowledge Production

Processes in Conflict and Disaster Research: Observations from Nepal.

Available from: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/347917263/Nepal_Final_Report_no_Annex.pdf

 

Džuverović, N., Vogel, B., Fast, L.., Dhungana N., Aryal Khanal, N., and Zapata

Cancelado, ML. (2025). Unpacking Ethical Dilemmas and Knowledge Production

Processes in Conflict and Disaster Research: Observations from the Balkans. Available from: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/357459746/Belgrade_Workshop_Report_published_No_Annexes.pdf

  

Zapata Cancelado, M. L., Vogel, B., Fast, L., Džuverović, N., Dhungana, N., & Aryal Khanal, N. (2025). Unpacking Ethical Dilemmas in Conflict and Disaster Research: Observations from Colombia.

Available from: https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/359980039/Colombia_Workshop_Final_Report.pdf

 

🎥 You can also use the project’s YouTube channel on Research Ethics. Videos in this channel provide resources to support ethical decision-making for researchers in conflict and disaster-related contexts https://www.youtube.com/@ResearchEthics2024