In this paper, we critically analyse our experiences of initiating participatory research in the challenging context of the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile. We use our experience of organising participatory workshops with Aymara and Quechua women community leaders to reflect on the politics of participation/non-participation, and explore these experiences in light of our multiple and overlapping positionalities as Chilean/British, male/female, white/mestizo. In the light of one workshop being entirely unsuccessful, we discuss the ways in which our empirical and methodological thinking has nevertheless been enriched by this experience. We situate the challenges we faced in relation to negotiating the tensions presented by debates on decolonising research from our positions within the neoliberal academy, exploring the questions raised by indigenous women activists' research ‘refusal’, and critically reflect upon the emotional responses this situation elicited in each of us. We argue for the importance of embracing such apparent fieldwork ‘failures’ and, recognising the resulting emotional swirl of panic, anxiety and inadequacy that they produce, emphasise these experiences as illustrative of the inherent tensions around decolonising research, as well as an often inevitable element of conducting research with marginalised communities involved in socio-environmental conflicts.

中文翻译：

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对智利北部失败的参与式研讨会的反思：谈判抵制、利益和联合国土著人民权利宣言

在本文中，我们批判性地分析了我们在智利北部阿塔卡马沙漠具有挑战性的环境中启动参与式研究的经验。我们利用与艾马拉和克丘亚族女性社区领袖组织参与式研讨会的经验来反思参与/不参与的政治，并根据我们作为智利/英国、男性/女性、白人/混血儿。鉴于一个研讨会完全不成功，我们讨论了我们的经验和方法论思维如何被这一经验丰富的方式。我们从我们在新自由主义学院内的立场出发，将我们在谈判关于非殖民化研究的辩论所带来的紧张局势方面面临的挑战置于首位，探索土著妇女活动家的研究“拒绝”所提出的问题，并批判性地反思这种情况在我们每个人中引起的情绪反应。我们主张接受这种明显的田野工作“失败”的重要性，并认识到由此产生的恐慌、焦虑和不足的情绪漩涡，强调这些经历说明了围绕非殖民化研究的内在紧张局势，以及通常不可避免的因素对参与社会环境冲突的边缘化社区进行研究。