Regional Mountain Conference

Research in mountain regions is increasingly expected to be participatory, collaborative and societally relevant, particularly in the field of climate- and hazard-related risks. These expectations are firmly embedded in research agendas and funding programs. At the same time, there is growing evidence that they are difficult to realize in practice and may reproduce existing power asymmetries if implemented uncritically. This raises questions about justice not only in research outcomes, but in research practice itself.

This contribution draws on qualitative interviews with researchers involved in natural hazard and disaster risk research in Nepal to examine how participation, decision-making power and responsibility are organized in everyday research practice. Rather than treating Nepal as a case comparable to the Alps, the analysis uses these insights to make visible structural conditions that also shape research in many mountain regions, including the European Alps.

The findings suggest that justice concerns often arise not because participation is missing, but because participation, influence and responsibility do not align. local actors and local researchers are expected to engage, share knowledge and manage expectations, key decisions about research questions, methods and outputs remain externally defined. This reveals how procedural, epistemic and distributive dimensions of justice intersect within research processes themselves.

These dynamics are not only ethically relevant. They also affect the relevance, legitimacy and long-term usability of research outputs in hazard and risk governance. By reflecting on these findings, this contribution invites to reconsider how participation and impact are operationalized in other projects. It argues that treating justice as an analytical lens – rather than as a normative add-on – helps to identify where well-intended research practices produce unintended consequences without ignoring the structural constraints under which such research is conducted.