Key Points of Interactive Research: An Ethnographic Approach to Risk

Van Voorst and Hilhorst introduce a structured approach to interactive research in settings of risk and uncertainty, in which sense-making of conflict is central. Interactive research means that the researcher explicitly recognises and analyses local actor’s influence and considerations, as well as the interaction between these actors and the researcher, as part of the process of knowledge construction. Some major keypoints of interactive research are: (1) allows for multiple rounds of dialogue and reflection with local actors; (2) explicit reflection on the co-construction of knowledge. This chapter first describes requirements for an interactive research in the design, fieldwork, and writing phase and then illustrates by the empirical example of fieldwork in a flood-prone and unregistered settlement in Jakarta, Indonesia.