Epitomizing ‘Trust’ in Violent Extremism Research

Building trust is essential when conducting fieldwork on sensitive topics such as violent extremism. This article examines what is at stake in trust-building processes, as shared values ​​and ethical conduct are at play during fieldwork especially when seeking to co-create knowledge on violent extremism. circumstances, decisions, and what-if scenarios that the researchers and the “researched” face when living and working in areas deemed “vulnerable” to the phenomenon under study—violent extremism. The workshop's participants deliberated on the practices informing trust-building, which was regarded as crucial in shaping both ethical research protocols and co-constructing knowledge. The positionalities of both the researcher and the researched, their framing of ethical concerns, whether inappropriate or relevant and trust-building endeavours, whether artificial or sincere, were considered key during fieldwork. The article also presents a few artworks made by the workshop's participants to illustrate how they view research fieldwork, illustrating the need for trust-building in co-creating knowledge, specifically when dealing with politically sensitive subjects such as violent extremism.