Finding Your Feet in the Field: Critical Reflections of Early Career Researchers on Field Research in Transitional Societies
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the challenges experienced by two early career researchers conducting fieldwork in conflict or transitional regions are discussed, focusing on the practical steps taken in advance of entering the field, and the challenges faced whilst engaged in fieldwork.Abstract:
Fieldwork that takes place in conflict or transitional regions is becoming increasingly popular amongst early-career and more seasoned researchers, but is an area that retains an air of mystery and remains an exotic form of knowledge gathering. There exists a paucity of personal reflection on the challenges associated with conducting fieldwork in conflicted or transitional regions and a limited amount of insight into the practical steps taken in advance of and when immersed in the field. Such reticence to share honest fieldwork experiences, particularly the more challenging research that takes place in conflict or transitional settings, plays a part in creating a culture of silence. This paper attempts to counteract this silence by drawing on the challenges experienced by two early career researchers conducting fieldwork in Uganda and Palestine, focusing on the practical steps taken in advance of entering the field, and the challenges faced whilst engaged in fieldwork. Specific challenges are highlighted throughout, including physical access to areas in conflict, engaging with reluctant research participants, the emotional impact of fieldwork on the researcher, maintaining confidentiality, researching with vulnerable victims, and ensuring appropriate knowledge exchange between researchers and participants. The paper concludes by emphasising the requirement for greater reflection on the inherently personal challenges associated with conducting fieldwork in conflicted or transitional settings and highlights the view that fieldwork is a privileged position that carries great responsibilities which must be upheld to ensure the sustainability of future research. This paper hopes to contribute to the wider debate on conducting fieldwork and the challenges associated with working in conflicted or transitional regions.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Emotions, Encounters and Expectations: The Uncertain Ethics of ‘The Field’
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges faced in encountering "the field" and the need to take seriously the ways in which fieldwork produces more than simply "data" and argue that encountering 'the field' produces sensibilities and dispositions, it alters researchers and those they encounter in often unpredictable ways.
Journal Article
Politically sensitive encounters: Ethnography, access and the benefits of ‘hanging out’
Journal ArticleDOI
The ethics of ethical debates in peace and conflict research: Notes towards the development of a research covenant
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline the case for peace and conflict researchers to formulate a research covenant to better shape their ethical obligations and responsibilities, which is an urgent necessity given the complexity of conflict resolution.
Journal ArticleDOI
A systematic review on ethical challenges of 'field' research in low-income and middle-income countries: respect, justice and beneficence for research staff?
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic review aims to identify the ethical challenges that research staff across different hierarchical levels and scientific disciplines face when conducting research in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Participant Observation in Violent Social Contexts
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the literature on methods with reference to this issue, and a discussion of some factors that have contributed to the fact that certain problems of physical safety for fieldworkers have become more prominent today than ever before in the past.
BookDOI
Surviving Field Research: Working in Violent and Difficult Situations
TL;DR: Mertus et al. as mentioned in this paper discuss the challenges of accessing research in conflict zones and the importance of personal security in the field of security seeking behavior, identity, objectivity, and behaviour.
New issues in refugee research
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors found that significant progress has been made overall in developing a refugee policy in Eurasia (which was defined in this study as the countries comprising the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine/Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; and the Central European countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia).
Journal ArticleDOI
A Critical Reflection on the Use of Translators/Interpreters in a Qualitative Cross-Language Research Project
Rachel Berman,Vappu Tyyskä +1 more
TL;DR: Based on experiences from a qualitative research project on immigrant women's English language acquisition, this article critiqued the traditional positivist model, and identified a number of issues related to the engagement of translators/interpreters in community-based research.
Book ChapterDOI
Researching Refugees: Methodological and Ethical Considerations
Robert Schweitzer,Zachary Steel +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline a number of approaches to refugee research and examine some of the ethical issues which emerge in refugee-related research, including conceptual, ethical and methodological issues.