Methods And reflections on fieldwork
Ahram, A. I., & Goode, J. P. (2016). “Researching Authoritarianism in the Discipline of Democracy.” Social Science Quarterly, 97(4), 834–849. [Link]
Al-Masri, M. (2017). Sensory Reverberations: Rethinking the Temporal and Experiential Boundaries of War Ethnography. Contemporary Levant, 2(1), 37–48. [Link]
American Political Science Association Qualitative Transparency Deliberations: Final Reports. [Link]
Anderson, K., & Jessee, E. (2020). Researching Perpetrators of Genocide. University of Wisconsin Press. [Link]
Ansoms, A., Bisoka, A. N., & Thomson, S. (Eds.). (2021). Field Research in Africa: The Ethics of Researcher Vulnerabilities. James Curry. [Link]
Balcells, L., and Sullivan, C.M. (2018). “New Findings from Conflict Archives: An Introduction and Methodological Framework.” Journal of Peace Research, 55 (2): 137–46. [Link]
Barnes, N. (2021). The Logic of Criminal Territorial Control: Military Intervention in Rio de Janeiro: Comparative Political Studies. [Link] (See methodological appendix)
Browne, B. C. (2020). “Conflict Fieldwork.” In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies (pp. 1–8). Springer International Publishing. [Link]
Calarco, J. (2018). “Notes from the Field: Show How You Know What You Know.” Scatterplot. (Blog). [Link]
Calvey, D. (2017). Covert Research: The Art, Politics and Ethics of Undercover Fieldwork. London: Sage. [Link]
Cancian, M. F., & Fabbe, K. E. (2019). “Informal Institutions and Survey Research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.” PS: Political Science & Politics, 52(3), 485–489. [Link]
Childress, C., Calonga, A., & Schneiderhan, E. (2020). “Beyond Triangulation: Reconstructing Mandela’s Writing Life through Propulsive Facilitation at the Archive.” Qualitative Sociology, 43(3), 367–384. [Link]
Chirambwi, K. (2023). “Rethinking research methods in protracted violent conflicts in Mozambique: Fieldwork in complex emergencies.” Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). [Link]
Clark, J.N. (2009). “Genocide, War Crimes and the Conflict in Bosnia: Understanding the Perpetrators.” Journal of Genocide Research 11(4), pp. 421–445. [Link]
Davenport, C., and Ball, B. (2002). “Views to a Kill: Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977–1995.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (3): 427–50. [Link]
De Juan, A., & Koos, C. (2021). Survey Participation Effects in Conflict Research. Journal of Peace Research. [Link]
Dembour, M.-B. (2000). Recalling the Belgian Congo: Conversations and Introspection. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books, Chapter 5. [Link]
Desposato, S. (Ed.). (2016). Ethics and Experiments: Problems and Solutions for Social Scientists and Policy Professionals. London & New York: Routledge. [Link]
Desposato, S. W. (2014). Ethical Challenges and Some Solutions for Field Experiments. [PDF]
Driscoll, J. (2016). ‘Prison States and Games of Chicken.’ In S. Desposato (Ed.), Ethics and Experiments: Problems and Solutions for Social Scientists and Policy Professionals (pp. 81–96). New York & London: Routledge. [PDF]
Driscoll, J. (2021). Doing Global Fieldwork: A Social Scientist’s Guide to Mixed-Methods Research Far from Home. Columbia University Press. [Link]
Einwohner, R. L. (2011). “Ethical Considerations on the Use of Archived Testimonies in Holocaust Research: Beyond the IRB Exemption.” Qualitative Sociology, 34(3): 415–30. [Link]
Eqeiq, A. (2017). “From Palestine to Mexico (and Back): Reflections of a Literary Scholar.” Contemporary Levant, 2(1), 61–66. [Link]
Eriksson Baaz, M., & Stern, M. (2016). “Researching Wartime Rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Methodology of Unease.” In A. Wibben (Ed.), Researching War: Feminist Methods, Ethics and Politics (pp. 117–140). Oxon & New York: Routledge. [Link]
de Guevara, B. B., & Bøås, M. (Eds.). (2020). Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention—A Guide to Research in Violent and Closed Contexts. Bristol University Press. [Link]
Feenan, D. (2002). “Researching Paramilitary Violence in Northern Ireland.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5(2), 147–163. [Link]
Finkel, E. (2017). Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Methods appendix (discusses use of written and video archival evidence related to the Holocaust). [Link]
Frank-Vitale, A. (2021). “Rolling the Windows Up: On (Not) Researching Violence and Strategic Distance.” Geopolitics, 26(1), 139–158. [Link]
Fujii, L.A. (2010). “Shades of Truth and Lies: Interpreting Testimonies of War and Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 47 (2): 231–41. [Link]
Fujii, L.A. (2015). “Five Stories of Accidental Ethnography: Turning Unplanned Moments in the Field into Data.” Qualitative Research 15 (4): 525–39. [Link]
Fujii, L.A. (2018). Interviewing in Social Science Research: A Relational Approach. New York & London: Routledge. [Link]
Gerson, K., & Damaske, S. (2020). The Science and Art of Interviewing. Oxford University Press. [Link]
Ghosn, F. and Parkinson, S.E. (2019). “‘Finding’ Sectarianism and Strife in Lebanon.” PS: Political Science and Politics, 52 (3): 494–497. [PDF]
Glasius, M., De Lange, M., Bartman, J., Dalmasso, E., Lv, A., Del Sordi, A., Michaelsen, M., & Ruijgrok, K. (2017). Research, Ethics and Risk in the Authoritarian Field. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [PDF]
Gohdes, A. R. (2018). ‘Studying the Internet and Violent Conflict.’ Conflict Management and Peace Science, 35(1), 89–106. [Link]
Greenwald, D. B. (2019). “Political Science Research in Settings of Intractable Conflict.” PS: Political Science & Politics, 52(3), 498–502. [Link]
Haar, G.V.D., Heijmans, A., and Hilhorst, D. (2013). “Interactive Research and the Construction of Knowledge in Conflict-affected Settings.” Disasters, 37(1), 20–35. [Link]
Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London & New York: Routledge, Chapter 10. [Link]
Herman, B., Panin, A., Wellman E.I., Blair, G., Pruett L.D., Opalo, K.O., Alarian H.M., et al. (2022). “Field Experiments in the Global South: Assessing Risks, Localizing Benefits, and Addressing Positionality.” PS: Political Science & Politics 55, no. 4: 769–72. [Link]
Höglund, K., & Öberg, M. (Eds.). (2011). Understanding Peace Research: Methods and Challenges. Oxon: Routledge. [Link]
Humphreys, M. (2015). “Reflections on the Ethics of Social Experimentation.” Journal of Globalization and Development, 6(1), 87–112. [PDF]
Jok, J. M. (2013). “Power Dynamics and the Politics of Fieldwork under Sudan’s Prolonged Conflicts.” In D. Mazurana, K. Jacobsen, & L. A. Gale (Eds.), Research Methods in Conflict Settings: A View from Below. Cambridge University Press.
Kanafani, S., & Sawaf, Z. (2017). “Being, Doing and Knowing in the Field: Reflections on Ethnographic Practice in the Arab Region.” Contemporary Levant, 2(1), 3–11. [Link]
Kara, H., & Khoo, S. (2020). “How the Pandemic has Transformed Research Methods and Ethics: 3 Lessons from 33 Rapid Responses.” Impact of Social Sciences | LSE. 26 October. [Link]
Khoury, D.R. (2013). Iraq in Wartime: Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 1 (section “Sources and Methodology” discusses the ethics of using Iraqi archives housed at Stanford University). [Link]
Khoury, R.B. “Hard-to-Survey Populations and Respondent-Driven Sampling: Expanding the Political Science Toolbox.” Perspectives on Politics 18, no. 2: 509–26. [Link]
Koonings, K., Kruijt, D., & Rodgers, D. (2019). Ethnography as Risky Business: Field Research in Violent and Sensitive Contexts. Rowman & Littlefield. [Link]
Krause, P., & Szekely, O. (Eds.). (2020). Stories from the Field: A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science (p. 392 Pages). Columbia University Press. [Link]
Krystalli, R. (2019). “Narrating Violence: Feminist Dilemmas and Approaches. Handbook on Gender and Violence. In Shephard, L. J. Handbook on Gender and Violence. Elgar Online. [Link]
Lee, A., Sharma, V.P., and Verghese, A.. (2023) “Social Science Comes to the Village: Assessing Behavioral Research in Developing Countries.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY, June 1. [Link]
Leiby, M. (2009). “Digging in the Archives: The Promise and Perils of Primary Documents.” Politics & Society, 37(1): 75–99. [Link]
Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the Vulnerable. A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods. London: Sage. [Link]
Luft, A. (2020). “How Do you Repair a Broken World? Conflict(ing) Archives after the Holocaust.” Qualitative Sociology, 43(3), 317–343. [PDF]
Macías, T. (2016). “Between Violence and Its Representation: Ethics, Archival Research, and the Politics of Knowledge Production in the Telling of Torture Stories.” Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, 5(1), 20–45. [PDF]
Mageza-Barthel, R. (2016). “Tracing Women’s Rights after Genocide.” In A. Wibben (Ed.), Researching War: Feminist Methods, Ethics and Politics (pp. 143–162). Oxon & New York: Routledge. [Link]
Markham, A. N.; Tiidenberg, K., & Herman, A. (2018). “Ethics as Methods: Doing Ethics in the Era of Big Data Research—Introduction.” Social Media + Society, 4(3), 1–9. [PDF]
Mazurana, D., Jacobsen, K., & Gale, L. A. (Eds.). (2013). Research Methods in Conflict Settings: A View from Below. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Link]
Morgenbesser, L., & Weiss, M. L. (2018). ‘Survive and Thrive: Field Research in Authoritarian Southeast Asia.’ Asian Studies Review, 42(3), 385–403. [PDF]
Morton, R. B., & Tucker, J. T. (2015). “Experiments, Journals, and Ethics.” Journal of Experimental Political Science, 1(1), 99–103. [PDF]
Osorio, J. (2014). “Numbers Under Fire: The Challenges of Gathering Quantitative Data in Highly Violent Settings.” Drugs, Security, and Democracy Program. DSD Working Papers on Research Security No. 6. New York: Social Science Research Council. [PDF]
Pachirat. T. 2013. Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight. Yale University Press. [Link] (Entire text addresses method, endnotes have additional material of interest.)
Pachirat. T. 2014. “Working Undercover in a Slaughterhouse: An Interview with Timothy Pachirat” Medium. [Link]
Pachirat, T. (2018). Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power. New York: Routledge. Act Four [Link]
Paechter, C. (2013). “Researching Sensitive Issues Online: Implications of a Hybrid Insider/Outsider Position in a Retrospective Ethnographic Study.” Qualitative Research, 13(1): 71–86. [Link]
Parkinson, S.E. (2018). “Seeing Beyond the Spectacle: Research on and Adjacent to Violence.” Cavatorta, Francesco and Janine Clark, (Eds.), Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa, pp. 73–82. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Parkinson, S.E. (2022). “(Dis)Courtesy Bias: ‘Methodological Cognates,’ Data Validity, and Ethics in Violence-Adjacent Research.” Comparative Political Studies 55 (3): 420–50. [Link]
Perera, S. (2015). “Accessing the Inaccessible in Difficult Environments: The Uses and Abuses of Crowdsourcing.” Research Paper 34. Development Leadership Program. [Link]
Perera, S. (2017). “Bermuda Triangulation: Embracing the Messiness of Researching in Conflict.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 11(1), 42–57. [Link]
Price, M., Gohdes, A., and Ball, P. (2015). “Documents of War: Understanding the Syrian Conflict.” Significance, 12(2): 14–19. [Link]
Procter, C. and Spector, B. (2019). “The New Ethnographer: Addressing Challenges in Contemporary Ethnographic Research.” Blog Series. [Link]
Rodgers, D. (2007). “Joining the Gang and Becoming a Broder: The Violence of Ethnography in Contemporary Nicaragua.” Bulletin of Latin American Research, 26(4), 444–461. [PDF]
Rudling, A. (2021). “Now Is the Time to Reassess Fieldwork-based Research.” Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 967–967. [Link]
Saleh, E. (2017). “A Tangled Web of Lies: Reflections on Ethnographic Fieldwork with Syrian Turkmen Women on the Side of a Road in Beirut.” Contemporary Levant, 2(1), 55–60. [Link]
Sawaf, Z. (2017). “Ethnography in Movement: Bounding the Field between the Compound and the Trailer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.” Contemporary Levant, 2(1), 12–23. [Link]
Schatz, E. (2009). Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power (pp. 119-142). Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. [Link]. (Several chapters address research in fragile and violence-affected settings.)
Schwartz, S. & Cronin-Furman, K.. 2023. “Ill-Prepared: International Fieldwork Methods.” Qualitative & Multi-Method Research 21 (1): 1–9. [PDF]
Schwedler, J., and Clark, J. A. (2018). “Encountering the Mukhabarat State.” In Political Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by J.A. Clark and F. Cavatorta, pp. 23–34. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. [Link]
Shesterinina, A. (2021). “Sources of Evidence and Openness in Field-intensive Research on Violent Conflict.” Politics, Groups, and Identities, 0(0), 1–7. [Link]
Sınmazdemir, T. (2019). “Collaborating across Borders: Challenges and Choices in Joint Survey Research between Local and Foreign Scholars.” PS: Political Science & Politics, 52(3): 503–506. [Link]
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books. [Link]
Spicker, P. (2011). “Ethical Covert Research.” Sociology, 45(1), 118–133. [Link]
Straus, S. (2017). “Studying Perpetrators: A Reflection.” Journal of Perpetrator Research, 1(1): 28–38. [Link]
Straus, S. (2004). “How Many Perpetrators Were There in the Rwandan Genocide? An Estimate.” Journal of Genocide Research, 6(1): 85–98. [Link]
Subotić, J. 2019. “The Ethics of Archival Research on Political Violence.” Department of Political Science at Georgia State University. Working Paper.
Teele, D. L. (2014). “Reflection on the Ethics of Field Experiments.” In D. L. Teele (Ed.), Field Experiments and Their Critics. Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences (pp. 115–140). New Haven & London: Yale University Press. [Link]
Thaler, K. M. (2017). “Mixed Methods Research in the Study of Political and Social Violence and Conflict.” Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 11(1), 59–76. [Link]
Tsai, L.L. (2010). “Quantitative Research and Issues of Political Sensitivity in Rural China.” In Allen Carlson, Mary E. Gallagher, Kenneth Lieberthal, Melanie Manion (Eds.), Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Link]
Vlassenroot, K. (2006). ‘War and Social Research: The Limits of Empirical Methodologies in War-torn Environments.’ Civilisations, 54(1), 191–198. [PDF]
Voorst, R.V. and Hilhorst, D. (2019). “Key Points of Interactive Research: An Ethnographic Approach to Risk”. In A. Olofsson and J.O. Zinn (Eds.), Researching Risk and Uncertainty: Methodologies, Methods and Research Strategies, pp. 53–76. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Weiss, N., Grassiani, E., & Green, L. (Eds.). (2023). The Entanglements of Ethnographic Fieldwork in a Violent World (1st ed.). Routledge. [Link]
Weld, K. (2014). Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books. [Link]
Wibben, A. T. R. (2016). Researching War: Feminist Methods, Ethics and Politics. Oxon and New York, NY: Routledge. [Link]
Wood, E.J. (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 2. [Link]
Wood, E.J. (2009). ‘Ethnographic Research in the Shadow of Civil War.’ In E. Schatz (Ed.), Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power (pp. 119–142). Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. [Link]
Yanow, D., & Schwartz-Shea, P. (2006). Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn. M.E. Sharpe.