Between trust and terrain: doing qualitative research in contexts of climate insecurity

Purpose This paper explores the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting qualitative field research in the disaster-prone southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. It aims to reflect on local-level disaster risk reduction (DRR) practices and community coping strategies, highlighting ethical concerns, adaptive techniques, and methodological innovations essential for meaningful and safe engagement in such fragile contexts. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a qualitative research design that integrated in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), field observations, and geo-tagged photographic documentation. The methodology was iteratively adapted during fieldwork to ensure safety, data richness, and ethical compliance. Special attention was paid to informed consent, community trust, and researcher positionality. Findings Key challenges included disrupted access due to seasonal hazards, power asymmetries in gender-mixed FGDs, resistance from communities due to outsider status, and ethical dilemmas related to photographic documentation and data visibility. These were addressed through flexible scheduling, women-only focus groups, ethical translation practices, and long-term trust-building. The integration of visual ethnography emerged as a methodological advancement that enhanced contextual understanding of climate-impacted livelihoods. Research limitations/implications The context-specific nature of the study may limit generalizability. However, the methodological strategies outlined can guide future research in similarly vulnerable or low-resource regions, particularly where DRR intersects with socio-environmental inequality. Originality/value This paper contributes to the sparse methodological literature on qualitative research in climate-vulnerable zones. It proposes a practical, ethical, and reflexive model for conducting fieldwork in such areas and foregrounds the voices of marginalized communities often overlooked in DRR discourse.