This research note explores the pressing ethical challenges associated with increased online platforming of sensitive research on conflict-affected settings since the onset of Covid-19. We argue that moving research online and the ‘digitalisation of suffering’ risks reducing complexity of social phenomena and omission of important aspects of lived experiences of violence or peace-building. Immersion, ‘contexting’ and trust-building are fundamental to research in repressive and/or conflict-affected settings and these are vitally eclipsed in online exchanges and platforms. ‘Distanced research’ thus bears very real epistemological limitations. Neither proximity not distance are in themselves liberating vectors. Nonetheless, we consider the opportunities that distancing offers in terms of its decolonial potential, principally in giving local researcher affiliates’ agency in the research process and building more equitable collaborations. This research note therefore aims to propose a series of questions and launch a debate amongst interested scholars, practitioners and other researchers working in qualitative research methods in the social sciences.

本研究报告探讨了自Covid-19以来，与受冲突影响的环境有关的敏感研究的在线平台日益增多所带来的紧迫的道德挑战。我们认为，将研究转移到网上和“苦难的数字化”有可能降低社会现象的复杂性，并省略暴力或缔造和平的现实经验的重要方面。沉浸，“情境化”和建立信任对于在压迫性和/或受冲突影响的环境中进行研究至关重要，而在在线交流和平台中，这些因素已被黯然失色。因此，“远程研究”具有非常现实的认识论局限性。距离而不是距离本身都不是解放的载体。尽管如此，我们还是会考虑到距离隔离带来的机会，例如它的殖民化潜力，主要是在研究过程中为当地研究人员的分支机构提供代理，并建立更公平的合作关系。因此，本研究报告旨在提出一系列问题，并在感兴趣的学者，从业人员和其他从事社会科学定性研究方法研究的研究人员之间展开辩论。