The article represents a resource for civil society investigators. It examines the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research “under surveillance”, rarely discussed in published form because they may raise unwanted attention from the authorities, and this could create barriers for investigators wishing to continue with their work in the future. Nevertheless, reflections on how to navigate the quandaries that might arise when doing fieldwork under the watchful eyes of the authorities are useful, especially for first-time fieldworkers. While collecting data for a postdoc project in Central Asia, the Author experienced both labor-intensive and technology-intensive surveillance. The resulting reflections presented in this publication should serve as a reminder that while they are watching us, we are watching them too. As such, it is not them, but us who have the last word.
This academic article was part of the Open Issue Vol. 21 No. 2 (2023) of the Surveillance & Society journal, a free-to-access, free-to-publish, peer-reviewed journal run by the not-for-profit educational charity, the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN).
Author: Jasmin Dall'Agnola
Tags: Surveillance Safety of journalistsThe content of this article can be used according to the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) . To do so use the the wording "this article was originally published on the Resource Centre on Media Freedom in Europe" including a direct active link to the original article page.
