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More than paperwork: Towards a relational, reflexive, and decolonial ethics in research with black women in South Africa

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This paper proposes a decolonial feminist framework for ethical praxis in qualitative research with Black women in South Africa. Drawing on two doctoral studies, one exploring Black women’s breast cancer experiences in Kimberley, and the other examining naked body protests as embodied political praxis, we interrogate the gap between procedural ethics and the lived ethical realities of fieldwork. We show how dominant institutional ethics protocols often fail to account for relationality, affect, embodiment, and power in postcolonial contexts. Grounded in Black feminist thought, decolonial critique, African relational ethics, and feminist ethics of care, the paper advances an understanding of ethics as ongoing, situated, and relational rather than a one-time bureaucratic requirement. We argue that ethical research practice must move beyond compliance toward accountability, care, and epistemic justice, particularly in research with historically marginalised communities in the Global South.

Source: Methods in Psychology

DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100236

Authors: Mpho Mathebula, Lesego Kgatitswe

Institutions: University of the Witwatersrand, Sol Plaatje University

Language: English

Topic: Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,840