Introduction

This volume brings together accounts from facilitating or brokering researchers in three settings afflicted by armed conflict, including DR Congo, Sierra Leone and Jharkhand, India. Indispensable to the research practice carried out by so-called contracting researchers, who are often based in the Global North, it is these facilitating researchers who truly regulate the access and flow of knowledge, and yet are often referred to merely as fixers, with their contributions systematically erased in the final research texts.

This book recounts first-hand the varied and crucial roles played by such researchers, meanwhile bearing witness to the insecurities and scarce resources navigated by them in order to facilitate the research of others. By listening to and learning from their experiences, the book outlines different routes towards a more equitable fieldwork, and a more collaborative process of knowledge production.