Experiences in Researching Conflict and Violence

Fieldwork Interrupted

Rivas, Althea-Maria, Browne, Brendan Ciarán

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2018
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781447337706
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

This international, edited collection brings together personal accounts from researchers working in and on conflict and explores the roles of emotion, violence, uncertainty, identity and positionality within the process of doing research, as well as the complexity of methodological choices. It highlights the researchers' own subjectivity and presents a nuanced view of conflict research that goes beyond the 'messiness' inherent in the process of research in and on violence. It addresses the uncomfortable spaces of conflict research, the potential for violence of research itself and the need for deeper reflection on these issues. This powerful book opens up spaces for new conversations about the realities of conflict research. These critical self-reflections and honest accounts provide important insights for any scholar or practitioner working in similar environments.

Table of contents

• EXPERIENCES IN RESEARCHING CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on the editors and contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Section I . Violence
• 1. Conducting unleashing interviews where control means life or death
• 2. Qualitative research in the shadow of violent conflict
• Section II . Uncertainty
• 3. Ambivalent reflections on violence and peacebuilding: Activist research in Croatia and the wider post-Yugoslav space1
• 4. Intervention, autonomy and power in polarised societies
• Section III . Identity and power
• 5. Formidable fieldwork: Experiences of a lesbian researcher in post-conflict Northern Ireland
• 6. Insider-outsider reflections on terrorism research in the coastal region of Kenya
• Section IV . Technology and social media
• 7. Bodies of cyberwar: Violence and knowledge beyond corporeality
• 8. Fields of insecurity: Responding to flows of information
• Section V. Methods
• 9. Writing the wrongs: Keeping diaries and reflective practice
• 10. Abetting atrocities? Reporting the perspectives of perpetrators in research on violence
• 11. Empathy as a critical methodological tool in peace research
• Index