Where the Map Turns Red: The Multiple Expressions of Risk in Ethnographic Research

The choice of coping responsibly with risk, instead of avoiding or minimizing it, could be an opportunity to increase knowledge and to learn more about the risk itself. In this regard, ethnographers should acquire specific skills, such as the awareness of one’s personal and imposed limits; the capacities of mediation and overview; care of and respect for interlocutors, and of and for the laws of the host country; the ethics of research and a sufficient dose of transparency of intentions that allows them to be considered trustworthy. This chapter explains what could occur during fieldwork in countries where cultural conflicts and political pressures can create precarious and dangerous conditions for the researcher. It recounts the author’s experiences in Iran and Iranian Balūchistān.