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Welcome, and inviting your comments

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 1:40 pm
by SheenaGreitens
Welcome to the QTD discussion board for research that occurs in authoritarian or repressive political contexts.
This working group will consider distinctive transparency issues that arise for research conducted in/on authoritarian or repressive political regimes. Broadly speaking, we will ask: what are the particular challenges and risks of research openness in authoritarian and repressive contexts? What are current practices for pursuing transparency in such contexts, and what would best practices look like?

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions. We will post each question as a separate thread, but also list them below as an overview of what we hope to gather information on.

Key Questions:
1. What is the goal of transparency in research on/in authoritarian political settings?
2. What must a researcher be explicit about to meet the standard of "transparency" in these settings? In other words, what distinctive challenges might arise that should be addressed by the researcher to satisfy this goal in authoritarian settings?
3. What are good examples where a researcher has been sufficiently transparent in research in authoritarian settings? What are innovative and useful practices that researchers in this field might adopt?
4. What practices related to transparency -- current or suggested -- should be avoided in the context of authoritarian/repressive regimes?

Best,
Eva Bellin, Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Yoshiko Herrera, and Diane Singerman