ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Participatory Tools for Human Development with the Youth (PARTY) project, an international interdisciplinary research study focusing on Indigenous San youth and their communities in South Africa and Namibia. The project focuses on young adults, especially those living in poor or otherwise volatile conditions, who are either marginalised or face the risk of becoming marginalised. The chapter’s aim is to ponder the ethical challenges and dynamics that emerge when ‘foreign’ researchers meet ‘others’. The chapter demonstrates the complexities that arose when researchers entered unfamiliar and often volatile research fields with for limited amounts of time. It deals with the experience and perspectives of the authors as feminist researchers participating in this international research project with Indigenous groups. The chapter explores the social dialogues among researchers, designers and participants and shows how ethical discussions are laden with the complex dynamics of power. Simultaneously, questions about the voice of the research community and the ethics of care are raised.
