Speaking of Epistemic Injustice: A Reply

In this article, we reply to ‘Ethics and Epistemic Injustice in the Global South’ (Kaur et al. 2023), a response to the original article ‘Covert Qualitative Research as a Method to Study Human Rights Under Authoritarian Regimes’ (Hopman 2022). Our reply is written by authors who have expertise and direct experience with the issues at stake (authoritarianism, Global North/Global South relations, covert research methods, epistemic injustice). We show that while there are some interesting points raised in the response article, in general, it does not do justice to the arguments presented in the original article. Instead it constructs a ‘straw man’ by misrepresenting claims in the original article, attributing to it assumptions that were not there, and lumping together notions such as authoritarian zones and Global South, that were not equated in the original article. After providing arguments for this position and discussing the main topics of the critique, we present two new elements: first, a contribution by someone from Moroccan controlled Western Sahara (MCWS), who experienced covert research as a research participant. Second, an overview of lessons learned from this exchange. These include: 1) instead of authoritarian zones, ‘authoritarian situations’ is a more appropriate concept; 2) projects using covert research should strive to include overt and participatory elements; 3) a response article alleging epistemic injustice should create space for the people concerned to speak for themselves.