Power, Ethics, and Human Rights: Studies of Refugee Research and Action / Edition 275

by Ruth M. Krulfeld, Jeffery L. MacDonald

Overview

Refugees experience some of the most visible manifestations of human rights abuses in the world today—and raise difficult issues for researchers and policy makers alike. This book investigates a broad range of complexities that arise as ethnographers work with refugee populations from different geographic areas in research, policy formation, and legal and social assistance. But the issues raised here have application to ethical concerns in ethnographic research and practice beyond refugees. The contributors draw on their intensive fieldwork to explore issues surrounding power and disempowerment between researcher and subject; dilemmas over the protection of research informants; and the rights and actions of refugees in representing themselves and their cultures in advocacy and policy arenas. The wealth of important insights in this book sharpen our understanding of the problems faced in any cross-cultural research and intervention. These explorations revitalize, in vivid detail drawn from case studies, recent theoretical debates on anthropology and ethnographic research, while suggesting new, empowering approaches to applied work and ethnographic study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847688982
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/29/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	5.79(w) x 8.78(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Ruth M. Krulfeld is professor of anthropology and international affairs at the George Washington University.

Jeffery L. MacDonald is director of program development at the International Refugee Center of Oregon (IRCO) and is president of the society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, a section of the American Anthropological Association.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Part I: Human Rights and Research Chapter 3 Exploring New Methods for Collaboration in Ethnographic Research: An Attempt at Overcoming Exploitation and Violation of Informant Rights Chapter 4 Whose Lives, Whose Work? Struggling Along the Subject-Colleague Continuum Chapter 5 The Testimonio Method in Refugee Research: Bringing Together Advocacy and Feminism in an Ethnographic Encounter with Q'eqchi' amd K'iche' Women Part 6 Part II: Who has the Right to Present and Represent Chapter 7 "We are the Experts:" a Case of Iu-Mien (Yao) Refugees Asserting Their Rights as Scholars of Their Own Culture Chapter 8 Towards an Heterology of Power Part 9 Part III: Human Rights and Praxis Chapter 10 Applied Anthropology, Funding Agencies, and the Human and Cultural Rights of Ethnic Communities,

Editorial Reviews

This volume has great relevance both to anthropologists and to other social scientists. Its value is not restricted to refugee research and praxis, but encompasses the work with small communities and minority groups generally. The underlying themes of human rights and power relations are an integral part of all ethical considerations in ethnographic research. I recommend this book for all researchers working with refugees and other forcibly displaced individuals as well as for students of anthropological and ethnographical sciences.

Journal Of Refugee Studies, Vol.12, N.3, 1999 - Dawn Chatty

Krulfeld and MacDonald have edited a book of excellent chapters by well-respected anthropologists in refugee studies. The strong focus on community participation and empowerment in refugee research questions the ethics of researchers who study or create programs for about refugees without their input. Social science researchers, clinicians, program evaluators and their students will find the book a very good read. Rich and moving descriptive data are integrated with the authors' own experiences, enlightening readers to personal and ethical dilemmas in refugee work, yet maintaining a scholarly base.

Juliene G. Lipson

This volume has great relevance both to anthropologists and to other social scientists. Its value is not restricted to refugee research and praxis, but encompasses the work with small communities and minority groups generally. The underlying themes of human rights and power relations are an integral part of all ethical considerations in ethnographic research. I recommend this book for all researchers working with refugees and other forcibly displaced individuals as well as for students of anthropological and ethnographical sciences.

Journal Of Refugee Studies - Dawn Chatty