Facilitating Researchers in Insecure Zones is a compelling and innovative book that highlights the unequal relationship between Contracting Researchers and Facilitating Researchers engaging in research in conflict-affected countries. Examples from experiences in Sierra Leone, India and DR Congo are used to discuss the types of inequalities in the research process, from the conceptualization of the research to the publication of the research findings and analysis, including the funding of the research. It is an invaluable resource for researchers to establish a good and equal relationship prior to future research endeavors.

Gameela Samarasinghe, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Facilitating Researchers sheds needed light on the plight of unsung heroes, those Global South scholars who despite their role in shaping the production of knowledge are hardly acknowledged. It is a timely decolonial intervention that charts a new course for doing ethical and more equitable fieldwork in the Global South.

Didier Gondola, Johns Hopkins University, USA

For anyone interested in global postcoloniality, this is a wonderful and must-read book by mainly Global South-based researchers on North-South knowledge production. Rooted in Global South sites of armed conflict, the book's contributions are all the more compelling – and therefore all the more insightful – on the perils and potentialities of researcher relationships and knowledge co-production across the North-South, elite-subaltern, war-peace, and class/gender/ethnic/racial divides.

Ilan Kapoor, author of The Postcolonial Politics of Development and Confronting Desire: Psychoanalysis and International Development.

This book catalyses transformative thinking about the ethics and practice of equitable research partnerships between researchers in the global north and global south. It brings together compelling chapters by researchers from Sierra Leone, Congo and Jharkhand who share their reflections of working in insecure zones through multiple relationalities between communities and institutions across diverse spatial contexts and social hierarchies. This book is a must read for scholars and practitioners of international development and international relations who are looking for practical and actionable ways for decolonising research methods in conflict and post conflict settings.

Ipshita Basu, University of Westminster, UK

This volume provides an honest, useful analysis for researchers from various disciplines on the difficult question of collaboration between research teams. The various chapters provide powerful accounts and innovative approaches to understanding the complex relationships between those who make research possible in often very difficult contexts and in some cases in their communities where research is conducted who they call 'facilitating researchers', and those from 'Contracting researchers' often from outside the researched communities. The examples drawn from lived experiences are rich as they are from various countries in Africa, and Asia but also reflect on dilemmas familiar to researchers globally. Unlike most literature on similar topics, the volume concludes with practical ideas that point to more hopeful future pathways to navigate these ethical challenges during the research process in sensitive contexts.

David Mwambari, associate professor KU Leuven University, Belgium