Etika, ljudska prava i istraživanje: Etnografija u poslijeratnoj Bosni i Hercegovini
Ethics, Human Rights and Action Research: Doing and Teaching Ethnography in Post-Genocide Communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Based on the ethnographic study of a local community in eastern Bosnia, this paper initially discusses the multiplicity of roles and responsibilities a researcher involved in researching post- -war communities faces in the field and beyond. While critically reflecting on ethics, the researcher's insider status and ethnography as a polyvocal process, the author advocates for researchers a more proactive approach in protecting and advancing the human rights of their research subjects. One of the ways this could be achieved is by connecting field – local communities – and universities not only through research but also through learning and teaching in the field. In 2007, the author of this paper, together with his colleague Prof Ron Adams, developed and successfully implemented a research/educational project as a fully accredited teaching subject for a group of Australian university students studying social anthropology. The educational aim of the project was to enable the students to learn about the devastating effects of genocide on local communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina through 'experiential learning', i.e. learning based on their first-hand experiences, while conducting ethnographic fieldwork in those communities. The ethnography elaborated on in the paper relates to a destroyed village in Podrinje, which was the location of ten-day-long fieldwork conducted by the students and their teachers. This short-term visit to the once vibrant and picturesque village in the Drina Valley resulted in many positive outcomes both during and after the visit. The author points out the real potential that experiential learning and ethnographic research can have on fostering positive change in post-genocide communities trying to reconstruct, 're-discover' and sustain themselves in new socio-political realities. In conclusion, using Foucauldian ideas about knowledge, power and discourse, the author emphasises the responsibilities researchers – as creators and disseminators of knowledge – have in regard to those they use as their primary research subjects.

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