Transnational Knowledge Production and the Ethics of North-South Research

• In Event: The politics of knowledge production in international partnerships: Ethical dilemmas in North-South research

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the central themes and dilemmas addressed by the panelists. Taking as its starting point the conference theme of ‘humanism that is inseparable from socio-economic equality,’ it reviews several recent studies in the field of international education and the sociology of knowledge to articulate an argument regarding the reasons why ethical North-South research remains challenging in the 21st century. The objective of the paper is to raise questions about the ethics, power, and geo-politics that affect researchers, such as the panelists, as they seek funding for international partnerships, design studies, carry out research, analyze data, and publish results. The theoretical framework is largely critical as it situates the study of research ethics within a larger political-economic context, and the data sources derive from the author’s own research in Tanzania and Zambia as well as a review of several studies by other scholars. The significance of the paper lies in its contribution to the larger panel and by building on the author’s current scholarship developing a critical theory of the internationalization of higher education, which includes research partnerships by scholars in the global North and South.

Author

• Frances Vavrus, University of Minnesota