Ethics of Positionality in Capturing Adivasi Youth ‘Voices’ in a Village Community in India

Abstract

This chapter draws on a study on Adivasi identities in a context of protracted violence and conflict in India. The chapter examines the ethical issues that emerged during the research with young people, through a critical exploration of researcher positionality and power. The chapter is informed by a naturalistic inquiry into community interactions and youth voice in an area of civil unrest in India, and specifically, with young people from the historically marginalised Adivasi community. I reflect on my theoretical transition to poststructuralism in the doing of this research, enriched by postcolonial and feminist perspectives, which emphasises the centrality of context and the inextricability of the researcher from the researched. By critically reflecting on my power and positionality as an adult researcher, I question how the particular context of the young participants, my presence and participation within it produced particular responses, understandings and identities of young people. These understandings are entangled with ethical challenges in relation to the navigation of the research context, gendering and hierarchisation within local community relations. In encountering these complexities, my ethical positioning raises questions about ‘representation’ in the capturing of youth voices in the Indian context. The chapter suggests an articulation and linking of the ethical tensions to a substantiation of the theoretical and methodological framings of research, informed through the research context and the researcher’s positionality.

Citation

Wadhwa, G. (2021), "Ethics of Positionality in Capturing Adivasi Youth ‘Voices’ in a Village Community in India", Spencer, G. (Ed.) Ethics and Integrity in Research with Children and Young People (Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity, Vol. 7), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-601820210000007011