During this twilight hour which we spend together - Ethical challenges of assembling virtual campfires for collective storytelling

Abstract

In this moment of climate crisis, bringing together storytellers from diverse geographies and socio-economic strata seems a moral imperative. But urgent needs of planetary ecologies are entangled in ironies. On my social media feed, COP27 participants post selfies from airplanes transporting them to discussions about carbon emissions, including those caused by aviation. On my television, a Nissan advertisement describes a future where “we’ll travel to incredible places with the help of magical technology”; its spokesperson declares, “I want my magical future now.” On my computer screen, a message from the office of research ethics lists problems with my plan to provide digital access to participants so they may gather virtually with other experts whose connectivity is as taken-for-granted as water, oxygen, food. The message concludes that, although technology has many benefits, there are other alternatives that should be considered for data collection. This presentation explores contradictions at the heart of this suggestion, posing questions for reflection as research design moves toward participatory, low-carbon, less-extractive, and researcher-decentered modes. What is the appropriate research role of technology for virtual connectivity, and who decides? Which participant groups are best and least served by institutional ethics-based policies? And, while in our classrooms we tell undergrads about dangers of “the single story,” are ethics policies regulating our research bound up in single-story framing? This presentation uses as its focus a proposed collaborative storytelling project, and examines how opportunities for empowerment and knowledge mobilization are impeded by policies of protection that maintain the status quo.