Front Cover
Series
Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention: A Fuide to Research in Violent and Closed Contexts
Copyright information
Table of contents
List of figures
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1 Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention into Violent and Closed Contexts
Dilemmas of fieldwork- based intervention research in violent and closed contexts
Control, confusion and failure in the research process
Dilemmas of security and risk
Dilemmas around distance and closeness
Sensitivities of research with vulnerable or marginalized participants
Notes
References
Part I Control and Confusion
2 Shifting Identities, Policy Networks, and the Practical and Ethical Challenges of Gaining Access to the Field in Intervention
Gaining access to policy elites working on intervention
The consequences of access to intervention elites for knowledge production
Conclusions
References
3 Interpretivist Methods and Military Intervention Research: Using Interview Research to De-centre the ‘Intervener’
Seeing like AFRICOM: interpretivist interview research on military intervention
Limitations of, and supplements to, interview research in intervention sites
Conclusion
References
4 The Interview as a Cultural Performance and the Value of Surrendering Control
Collecting oral information in unfamiliar contexts
Spontaneity and informality
Informal conversations over cups of tea
Conclusions
Note
References
5 Unequal Research Relationships in Highly Insecure Places: Of Fear, Funds and Friendship
‘Will we ever be friends?’
‘Respect me!’
.Hey ho, let’s go!'
Conclusion
Note
References
Part II Security and Risk
6 The Politics of Safe Research in Violent and Illiberal Contexts
Regulating research
Side effects of regulation
Conclusion
Notes
7 The Politics and Ethics of Fieldwork in Post-conflict Environments: The Dilemmas of a Vocational Approach
Procedural versus practical ethics
1. Safety: ‘do no harm’ or ‘see no evil’?
2. Positionality: access to the field versus partiality of research
3. Permission: official approval versus official surveillance
4. Consent: overt versus covert approaches to research
5. Collaboration: co-production of knowledge versus sensible distancing
Conclusions
Notes
References
8 Challenges of Research in an Active Conflict Environment
Safety and research ethics
Leveraging relationships in the research process: understanding the parameters
Negotiating access
Preserving research quality: flexibility, methodological rigour and transparency in research design
Operating in environments of weak state capacity and ongoing conflict
Conclusion
Notes
References
9 On Assessing Risk Assessments and Situating Security Advice: The Unsettling Quest for ‘Security Expertise’
MILOBS missing out on micro-dynamics
Kidnapping analytics
Attenuating the barbarian syndrome
Imagining the ambush
Rape preparedness
Conclusion: locating security expertise
Note
References
10 Being Watched and Being Handled
A game
Scope conditions
Actors
Strategy sets and joint strategy payoffs
Analyzing the game
Selecting a pure strategy equilibrium: coordination on focal points
A mixed-strategy equilibrium
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part III Distance and Closeness
11 Positioning in an Insecure Field: Reflections on Negotiating Identity
Negotiating visible aspects of identity
Positionality and negotiations of power
Negotiating identity—finding your place in the field
Conclusion
Notes
References
12 A Different Form of Intervention? Revisiting the Role of Researchers in Post-war Contexts
The research context
Researchers and the ‘international intervention’
Too close? Doing research in an over-exploited site
Non-intervention contexts? The peripheries of research interventions
Conclusion
Notes
References
13 The Road to Darfur: Ethical and Practical Challenges of Embedded Research in Areas of Open Conflict
Embedded research in conflict and intervention research
How does one get to Darfur?1
Ethical challenges and hidden effects of embedded research
Choice of focus and approach to research
Informed consent
Confidentiality
The hidden effects
Reconciling two worlds and reflexivity
Note
References
14 Interpretation by Proxy? Interpretive Fieldwork with Local Associates in Areas of Restricted Research Access
Accessing experiential/local knowledge
Designing the workshop between research and art
Implementing a research design with a feminist sensitivity
Navigating outputs: what is research for?
Conclusions
Notes
References
Part IV Sex and Sensitivity
15 Sex Workers and Sugar Babies: Empathetic Engagement with Vulnerable Sources
Know your ‘why’
Victims, agency and ‘critical empathy’
Gatekeepers, compensation and security
Conclusions
Notes
References
16 Lifting the Burden? The Ethical Implications of Studying Exemplary, Not Pathological, Wartime Sexual Conduct
The set-up: my research on the prevention of wartime sexual violence
The research area
My research design
Gaining access to respondents
The main ethical risks
Expunging culpability for other harms
Rewarding protection, not recognition of women’s sexual autonomy
Mitigating the ethical risks
Sustaining complexity
Acknowledging uncertainty
Conclusions
Note
References
17 Unexpected Grey Areas, Innuendo and Webs of Complicity: Experiences of Researching Sexual Exploitation in UN Peacekeeping Missions
Assumptions clash with reality: fieldwork in Timor-Leste, 2004
Zero tolerance and definitional grey zones
Innuendo, drunken rumours and urban legends
Complicity and critique
Conclusion
Notes
References
18 Sexual Exploitation, Rape and Abuse as a Narrative and a Strategy
Dilemma 1: when research is situated in a socio-political context we cannot change
Dilemma 2: when participating in research interviews is a strategy
Dilemma 3: how to respond to pain and suffering
Conclusions
References
19 Ten Things to Consider Before, During and After Fieldwork in a Violent or Closed Context
Before going to the field…
1. Do I really need to do fieldwork?
2. Which type of fieldwork is feasible, and where is the field?
3. Juggling the institutional and vocational approaches to fieldwork ethics and risk
While in the field…
4. Questions of research access
6. Negotiating positionality and identity in the field
7. Questions of money and other power differentials
8. Managing emotions, confusions and failures while in the field
When back from the field…
9. Writing up our research
10. The long-term consequences of fieldwork, and the question of giving something back
Conclusions
References
Index
Back Cover