Frontline collaborations: The research relationship in unstable places

Abstract

The stereotype of the ethnographic research assistant as marginal figure, ‘inside’ enough to facilitate access but ‘outside’ enough to broker worlds of understanding, has likely always been a fiction. But as qualitative researchers increasingly focus on unfolding events in unstable places, research collaborators are even less likely to be the ambiguous figures of legend. To conduct research in violent environments, researchers often find that they must rely on individuals who are central to the unfolding story of conflict. This piece explores the implications of one such relationship. In the exchange recorded here we examine what it means for ethnographers and participant/research assistants to collaborate on a project of ‘frontline’ anthropology. Through our own experiences during and after the war in Sierra Leone and Liberia, we focus on the ethics of ethnographic access and the problems associated with constructing ethnographic histories.