Document Type
Full Length Article
Abstract
In the context of immigration law and legal insecurity, this article examines how community-based participatory research (CBPR) reshapes ethical responsibility for researchers. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) along the border between the United States and Mexico, the study reflects on how courtroom practices reproduce access to justice, how research itself influences what knowledge becomes visible, and how the researcher’s positionality influences ethical engagement. The article finds that doing ethical research in settings of legal precarity requires the researcher to shift from a neutral observer to an accountable participant, maintained through sustained relational engagement, recognition of asymmetries in access and voice, and a commitment to ensuring that knowledge production does not reproduce the very inequalities it seeks to examine.
Academic Department
Sociology; Political Science, Public Law, and Administration
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Morales, Ruben Jr.
(2026)
"Responsibility Without Rescue: Community-Based Participatory Research, Legal Insecurity, and Ethical Accountability in Borderland Courtrooms,"
The Agora: Vol. 4, Article 9.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.nmsu.edu/the-agora/vol4/iss1/9