SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This case is based on a project in rural South Africa investigating food access and livelihoods after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research entailed remote collaboration between an anthropologist and a locally based translator. By explaining how the authors developed and used a collaborative research process for qualitative data collection and analysis, it identifies the important factors that make this method feasible and productive. It highlights the ways that the collaborative research process itself generates a distinct body of data from which new insights can be drawn. Informed by decolonizing methodologies, it explores the implications of translation not merely as a technical role but one central to the politics of knowledge production. It discusses the ethical issues encountered in the research, arguing that co-producing and co-authoring research is not a silver bullet to achieving equitable research. Instead, it involves different kinds of power dynamics, institutional and technical constraints, as well as risks to be navigated. Developing critical reflexivity is essential for tackling these challenges.