How to Conduct Ethnographies of Resistance in Off-Limits Zones?

Calls have been made for a relocation of theory building to and from the Global South in order to decolonise academic knowledge production on social movements. However, an important range of methodologies such as ethnographic fieldwork remain difficult in some contexts, known as “off-limits zones”, such as national territories under authoritarian regimes. In this communication I will reflect on alternative research designs to conduct fieldwork on social movements in off-limits zones. I will specifically discuss possibilities and challenges of constructing an interdisciplinary toolbox to overcome some of those difficulties related to accessibility, ethics, and risk and safety of research participants and researchers. The case of political activist ethnography, derived from the classical feminist institutional ethnography, methods of “counter-archive” from historical ethnography and possibilities of online data collection offered by digital ethnography will be considered.