Ethics in Revolution(ary) Research

Chapter 8 addresses issues of ethics in revolutions research. As revolutionary actors and scholars interact, the dichotomy between revolutionary insiders and outsiders appears to be not as firm as some may have assumed. What are scholars’ ethical responsibilities? While each situation raises its own ethical considerations, this chapter provides some general points of reflection and engages questions of how scholarship is linked to practice in revolutionary studies. The chapter also evaluates three false dichotomies that permeate contemporary ethics discourse on revolutions and engaged scholarship more generally: research/practice; descriptive/prescriptive analysis; and complicity/resistance. It shows how and why these dichotomies can be misleading and potentially counterproductive in generating constructive and transformative integration between revolutionary scholarship and practice. It concludes by offering 12 self-reflective questions to scholars of revolution, which may help to inform an ethically engaged study of revolution. The chapter may be useful for researchers who engage in public-facing scholarship and those who consider themselves scholar-activists or movement participants more explicitly.