Short description:

This groundbreaking volume demands a fundamental rethinking of how research is conducted with—and accountable to—communities.

Essential reading for anyone committed to research as a tool for justice rather than extraction, this book offers a radical vision of scholarship that centers community voices and collective well-being.

Long description:

This groundbreaking volume demands a fundamental rethinking of how research is conducted with—and accountable to—communities. Moving beyond institutional compliance and procedural checklists, the work calls for an ethics grounded in responsibility, reciprocity, and knowledge sovereignty, challenging researchers to reimagine their relationships with research participants and communities.

Bringing together Indigenous, Black, immigrant, and land-based perspectives, the contributors confront the colonial and extractive logics that continue to shape mainstream research ethics. They advocate for relational accountability, continuous consent, and shared decision-making as essential foundations for just and transformative scholarship. Through personal decolonization narratives, critiques of institutional ethics boards, and practical frameworks for community-led governance, this book equips scholars, community organizers, and policymakers with concrete strategies to dismantle power imbalances and foster equitable research partnerships.

Essential reading for anyone committed to research as a tool for justice rather than extraction, Rethinking Research offers a radical vision of scholarship that centers community voices and collective well-being.

Table of Contents:

About the Editors  Notes on Contributors  Chapter 1: Rethinking Responsibilities in Community-Based Research  Part I: From Ethics to Responsibility: Reframing the Foundations  Chapter 2: Ethical Relationalities in Engineering: A Participatory Inquiry into Accountability By Lori Bradford  Chapter 3: Reflective Decolonial Dialogues as Catalysts for Transformative Change: Learning from Cree First Nation Community-Led Cultural Camps By Ranjan Datta, Jean Kayira, Emdad Haque, Nausheen Sadiq, Jebunnessa Chapola, C. Emdad Haque, Somashree Chattapadhya, Prarthona Datta, Prokriti Datta  Chapter 4: Ethical Dimensions of Climate Action Research in the Arctic By Maria Båld  Part II: Relational Practice, Governance, and Decolonial Environmental Justice  Chapter 5: Colonial Legacies and the Inaccessibility of Urban Green Spaces in Dhaka City: Pathways to Environmental Justice through Decolonising Research Ethics and Green Space Governance Practice By Md Badrul Hyder and Tavir Turin Chowdhury  Chapter 6: Carceral Ecologies and Indigenous Resistance in the Global North and Global South: Decolonizing Environmental Justice Research in the Prison System By Mohammed Jahirul Islam and Md. Lab Hossain  Chapter 7: Ethical Research Relationships Through Umunthu: A Case Study from Kasungu National Park, Malawi By Jean Kayira, Matias Elisa, Reuben Chikuni, Ndaona Kumanga, and Leonard Moyo  Part III: Indigenous Sovereignty, Embodied Knowledge, and Living Traditions  Chapter 8: Reclaiming Apara Vidya as Transformational Research: Advaita, Embodied Wisdom, and the Silencing of Living Traditions By Rani Muthukrishnan  Chapter 9: Land-Based Spiritual Music as a Ceremonial Research Journey By Rita Karmakar  Chapter 10: Wombs of the World: Reckoning with Colonial Medicine, Remembering Feminist Futures By Abhinya Gulasingam, Erika Arteaga-Cruz, Jennie Joseph & Thirusha Naidu  Part IV: Anti-Racist Research, Institutional Transformation, and Democratizing Governance  Chapter 11: Democratizing Community-Engaged Research: From Bottlenecks to Belonging in Access, Capability, Voice, and Trust & Integrity By Tanvir Turin Chowdhury, Nashit Chowdhury, Viana Farzaneh, Mohammad Mojammel Hussain Raihan, Irfan Hyder, Ranjan Datta  Chapter 12: Decolonizing Research Methodology with Racialized Communities: Applying Principles to Practice through a Reflective Audit Framework By Tanvir Turin Chowdhury, Nashit Chowdhury, Viana Farzaneh, Mohammad Mojammel Hussain Raihan, Irfan Hyder, Ranjan Datta  Chapter 13: Achieving Accountable Research Approaches through Ethical Understanding By Katie Sand  Part V: Climate, Healing, and More-than-Human Responsibility  Chapter 14: Emerging After the Flood: A Personal Journey of Decolonization, Healing, and Responsibility in Research By Samantha A. Ruby  Chapter 15: Two French theorists on imperialism: An Australian Indigenous criticism of Foucault and Frémeaux By Jesse J. Fleay  Conclusion  Index