Southern Researchers and the Politics of Knowledge Production

This book investigates the challenges faced by early career researchers from the Global South who are working on social science or international development research. Delving deeply into the experiences of a wide range of researchers, the book critically examines and complicates the notions of insider and outsider, inviting the reader to consider who produces knowledge, and how it is produced.

As discussions of epistemic justice and decoloniality within social science and international development research grow in prominence, this book argues that Global South researchers can play a significant role in reversing the gaze and shaping intellectual discussions about how, by whom, and for whose benefit knowledge is created. Combining theoretical discussions with case studies and essays from fieldwork, this book demonstrates the multi-layered and complex positionality which Global South researchers navigate while conducting research. The book considers how Global South researchers bring specific experiences of race, gender, religion, values, and politics to their work, which are often concealed or censored for fear of affecting academic analytical production. This experience of fieldwork can challenge static and linear assumptions of the positionality and ethics of a researcher working in the field.

This innovative book will be an important read for early career researchers working within social science and international development research, as well as for lecturers and practitioners supporting researchers from the Global South in conducting their research and their fieldwork.