Public self-expression: Decolonising researcher–researched relationships

ABSTRACT: A case is made for research participants (normally known as ‘informants’, ‘subjects’, ‘objects’, ‘sources’, etc.) to be included in certain kinds of studies as co-authors and co-researchers. Self-narrative is examined from the perspectives of both the researchers and the researched. Engraved landscape, a post-positivist visual archaeology anthology, is our case study that draws on long-term lived field research amongst the ǂKhomani Bushmen. The ǂKhomani, without access to social media, rigorously manage their global media exposure and have high social expectations of research done on them. ǂKhomani media management is contrasted with the open-endedness of social media use by urban literate users. Issues of regulation connect the comparison.