Reflexivity and Participatory Policy Ethnography: Situating the Self in a Transnational Criminology of Harm Production

This chapter describes how a researcher’s direct immersion in an active policy node can create unique opportunities for this individual to exercise reflexivity and achieve what Bowling describes as a transnational criminology of harm production. This involves moving beyond ex post facto critiques of ethnocentrism and the structural inequalities associated with transnational criminology and actively mitigating the potential consequences of one’s participation in the field. The author illustrates this idea and the potential consequences of an immodest approach to participatory policy research in the Global South by reflecting on the ethical dilemmas he encountered while completing ethnographic field work with UNDP’s Safer Communities project in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2011. Drawing from the case study, the chapter concludes that regardless of one’s methodological inclinations, reflexive awareness is essential for achieving a modest and innoxious transnational criminology that empowers local actors.