Risking the Self: Vulnerability and Its Uses in Research

Abstract

As researchers, we aim to reduce emotional risk, in essence our vulnerability, that comes from empathising with others. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in India and Indonesia, and drawing on concrete examples of research with community volunteers and women municipal councillors, this chapter challenges the assumption that vulnerability in research is negative. My chapter argues that heightening one’s vulnerability is a necessary aspect of ethical knowledge production. Vulnerability means being purposefully open to being affected by the other, to have one’s very core sense of who one is and is becoming challenged in our encounters with others (e.g., research participants and research partners). While vulnerability in this sense increases risk, the benefits of becoming more not less vulnerable enriches our research and is pivotal to understanding the way power operates in the field.