Surviving Field Research

How do we gain authentic information and generate credible knowledge from research in difficult places and from difficult audiences? Can we do this? Are there practical solutions to the challenges and barriers often put before us? This book guides researchers in conducting research in situations of [...]
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How do we gain authentic information and generate credible knowledge from research in difficult places and from difficult audiences? Can we do this? Are there practical solutions to the challenges and barriers often put before us? This book guides researchers in conducting research in situations of violent conflict or human rights abuses. It informs the reader of the ongoing debates about responsible scholarship and explains how to identify and address challenges in conducting qualitative research in difficult circumstances.The volume proceeds in five substantive sections, each addressing a different challenge of conducting field research in conflict scenarios: ethics, access, veracity, security, identity, objectivity, and behavior of the researcher. Each chapter within each section addresses a specific dimension or several dimensions of the broader challenge, drawing upon the author's concrete experiences in the field. The volume concludes with a chapter on putting the lessons from the volume into practice. This is an important and necessary text for scholars, researchers and policymakers studying and engaged in protection of human rights.