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Vol. 69 No. 4 (2025): Symbolic Boundaries in Social Communication

Articles and essays

Research Ethics in Boundary Situations: On the Margins of Research into Ukraine’s Experience of Full-Scale War Since 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/KiS.2025.69.4.13
Submitted: April 23, 2025
Published: December 12, 2025

Abstract

The article presents ethical concerns arising in the practice of researching boundary situations, which—for the purposes of the article—have been defined as sudden situations, external to the researcher and involving violence, suffering, or loss. The author points to the special obligation of protecting research participants, as well as the specificity of cooperating with local researchers and the resulting risks of creating a hierarchy of knowledge production. The mechanisms through which procedural ethics operate are then discussed, and alternative solutions are outlined. The author refers to her own research during the war in Ukraine.

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