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“Renegade research”: hierarchies of knowledge production in Central Asia

For those researching the global south, fieldwork needs to be reimagined as a collaborative process which can help overturn structures of oppression.

By Mohira Suyarkulova
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Call to prayer in Karategin, Tajikistan. Photo CC BY-NC 2.0: Rohan Shenhav / Flickr. Some rights reserved.

In the past couple of years a lively discussion has been taking place on the ethics and safety of conducting research in authoritarian states, including in Central Asia. Some of these exchanges were published on the pages of openDemocracy and EurasiaNet: earlier this year, a piece on Tajikistan by John Heathershaw and Edward Schatz was followed by responses from Malika Bahovadinova and Karolina Kluczewska. This discussion is illustrative of the stakes involved.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0