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Following works opening the black box of fieldwork with vulnerable actors, this article presents some questions raised by a participatory action research project in prisons. A reflexive analysis of the fieldwork has led to the following conclusion: conducting fieldwork with vulnerable actors can generate asymmetries between the researcher and participants, and amplify asymmetries already existing in the field. After a presentation of concrete situations leading to this conclusion, I question the possibility of conducting fieldwork without oppressing participants. This article does not offer a definitive and prescriptive answer to this question. Rather, it offers methodological and ethical suggestions that aim to rebalance relationships between all the actors involved in the fieldwork.