Experiences in Researching Conflict and Violence: Fieldwork Interrupted
Althea-Maria Rivas and Brendan Ciarán Browne
Abstract
Unlike previous volumes on the subject of ‘doing’ conflict fieldwork, this book does not delineate a clear ‘how to’ toolset for undertaking conflict related research but rather requires the contributors to cast a critical eye on their own research praxis. It brings together scholars working in/on conflict, and through personal accounts of their experiences working in spaces of conflict, explores the role of emotion, violence, uncertainty, identity and positionality within the process of doing research as well as the complexity of methodological choices. This volume thus seeks to go beyond acad ... More
Unlike previous volumes on the subject of ‘doing’ conflict fieldwork, this book does not delineate a clear ‘how to’ toolset for undertaking conflict related research but rather requires the contributors to cast a critical eye on their own research praxis. It brings together scholars working in/on conflict, and through personal accounts of their experiences working in spaces of conflict, explores the role of emotion, violence, uncertainty, identity and positionality within the process of doing research as well as the complexity of methodological choices. This volume thus seeks to go beyond academic-centric conversations about how we can achieve rigour or handle our data collection and rather it aims to draw out the broader implications of such research efforts. By doing so it presents a more nuanced and grounded view of conflict research that is unapologetic and unafraid to demystify and declare the messiness that is inherent in the process of research in/on violence and the potential for violence of research itself.
Keywords:
Violence,
conflict research,
fieldwork,
research ethics,
identity and research,
methodologies,
research subjectivities,
emotion,
positionality,
ambivalence
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2018 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781447337683 |
| Published to Policy Press Scholarship Online: September 2018 |
DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781447337683.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Althea-Maria Rivas, editor
University of Sussex
Brendan Ciarán Browne, editor
Trinity College Dublin
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