Conduct manual for fair field research*
Conduct a pre-research preparation where the purpose of the research is defined, as well as the execution through transdisciplinary disciplines and the resources that revolve around the research. It is important to seek the involvement of the community in the research through empathy and respectful listening, while recognizing their sovereignty.
Knowledge for whom and for what? Knowledge production with whom? What are the opportunities and limitations?
At the end of the research, look for ways to return the results or products to the community in a way that is understandable and easily accessible.
Tips for ethical research
- Integrate emotional intelligence and mutual respect into research activities.
- Learn with and from nature.
- Different knowledge must be valued in the same way.
- Seek participatory, collective, democratic, and collaborative learning.
- Avoid prejudices and egocentrism, dispel stereotypes and be aware of Eurocentrism in academic practices.
- Seek harmony in the research team and the subjects of study.
Contributions of gender thinking during research practices
- Seek participatory methodologies (example: “Rio de Vida”, this methodology seeks to tell the story of a community through the mapping of its living places, to include spaces and interactions between people and the territory).
- Include the gender perspective, considering the division between natural and social sciences.
- Avoid seeing communities or families as homogeneous spaces, something that allows us to empower ourselves may not have the same effect in another community or family.
- Consider methodologies to make internalized sexism visible.
- Study how inequalities are and how they are reproduced in work groups and communities.
- Think about sustainability from a gender perspective.
Reflection: Feminisms to sustain life, both the human and the non-human. There can be no sustainable development without gender equality.
*This manual was developed by the participants of the PRODIGY 2020/21 course.