Vol. 34 No. 2 (2025): NJAS Special Issue: Negotiating Consent in African Studies
Special issue: Negotiating Consent in African Studies

Negotiating Consent in African Studies: A Case for Customised Consent

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Amanda Moller Rasmussen
Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University / Research Assistant Center for Military Studies, Copenhagen University
Bio
Rune Larsen
Independent Researcher
Bio
Stig Jensen
Centre for African Studies, Copenhagen University
Bio

Published 2025-06-23

Keywords

  • customised consent,
  • consent contexts,
  • consent interests,
  • consent mediators,
  • African Studies

Copyright (c) 2025 Amanda Moller Rasmussen, Rune Larsen, Stig Jensen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Negotiating Consent in African Studies: A Case for Customised Consent. (2025). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 34(2), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.53228/w727yg66

Abstract

Informed consent has been increasingly equated with standardized models and legal jargon. At Scandinavian universities, researchers are expected to adhere to European standardized models and institutional forms, necessitating documentable (preferably signed) consent from research participants. As Africanist researchers, we observe a growing dissonance between institutional expectations and fieldwork ethics and moralities. The field of African Studies has been pivotal in revealing how knowledge practices that are ostensibly universal are, in fact, products of deep-seated inequalities in higher education and knowledge production, perpetuating Western ideals of ethics. This introduction advocates for “customized consent” and introduces three concepts – consent contexts, consent interests, and consent mediators – to address and positively transform informed consent procedures and expectations.

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