Ethics of Knowledge Extraction and Production

Abstract This reflection on the politics and ethics of social research in Jordan starts with the dynamics between individual researchers and then turns to the politics and policies of data ownership in funded projects. The power relations between individual researchers as well as those between foreign donors and local researchers indicate who is considered the producer of knowledge and who the owner of it. The essay draws on personal experiences from the author's work in Jordan to think through what this means in terms of power/knowledge structures on the ground and what can be done to resist and transform these dynamics.