‘We need solidarity’: Reflections on Building and Troubling Solidarity in Research Ethics in Myanmar

ABSTRACT Calls for solidarity by civil society are taking place alongside changes in how researchers navigate shifting research landscapes. Yet what solidarity‐based research entails in practice and how this might guide, critique, or challenge institutionalised ethics can be elusive. This is particularly the case in complex conflict and authoritarian research environments like Myanmar, which require us to question how solidarity can be practiced with civil society movements. In this paper, we draw on our experiences in research and reflect on our positions ‘in‐between’ universities and civil society movements to illustrate how solidarity can be practised and how we can navigate tensions with institutional ethics processes. Through our own reflections of building solidarity in our research in Myanmar and its borderlands, we identified the key foundations of positionality, building trust and relationships, approaching time critically, and moving beyond ‘do no harm’ in research. We argue that placing relationships at the forefront of the research process also requires moving beyond claiming solidarity by engaging in critical reflexivity and ‘troubling’ our own research practices and positionalities.