Navigating Ambiguities in International Research Collaboration

This chapter explores the ambiguities related to the concept ‘international’. While it focuses on the study of religions, the discussion is relevant for other fields as well. The international is often idealized and unreflectively used, both as a genuine attempt to improve the representativeness of research or as an ill- fated attempt to increase the relevance of one’s findings, journals, or funding programmes. The chapter shows that while pursuing the ideal of international research is certainly worthwhile, practical challenges, such as developing methods, as well as funding conditions, global inequalities, and political realities affect the shape of the international, and significantly affect our research designs and partner choices. It provides some illustrative examples of practical challenges from the authors’ own experiences of leading, participating in, and setting up international research.