Doing Fieldwork in Areas of International Intervention

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara is a Reader in Peacebuilding at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, UK. Morten Bøås is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Norway.

• PART 1: CONTROL AND CONFUSION;The interview as a cultural performance and the value of surrendering control ~ Markus Göransson;Interpretivist methods and military intervention research: using interview research to de-centre the ‘intervener’ ~ Casey McNeill;Shifting identities, policy networks, and the ethical and practical challenges of gaining access to the field in interventions ~ Roland Kosti?; Being watched and being handled ~ Jesse Driscoll;Unequal research relationships in highly insecure places: of fear, funds and friendship ~ Morten Bøås;PART 2: SECURITY AND RISK;The politics of safe research in violent and illiberal contexts ~ Francesco Strazzari and Alessandra Russo;Challenges of research in an active conflict environment ~ Boukary Sangaré and Jamie Bleck;The politics and ethics of fieldwork in post-conflict environments: the dilemmas of a vocational approach ~ John Heathershaw and Parviz Mullojonov;On assessing risk assessments and situating security advice: the unsettling quest for ‘security expertise’ ~ Judith Verweijen;PART 3: DISTANCE AND CLOSENESS;Positioning in an insecure field: reflections on negotiating identity ~ Maria-Louise Clausen;A different form of intervention? Revisiting the role of researchers in post-war contexts ~ Daniela Lai;The road to Darfur: Ethical and practical challenges of embedded research in areas of open conflict ~ Mateja Peter;Interpretation by proxy? Interpretive fieldwork with local associates in areas of restricted research access ~ Katarina Kuši?;PART 4: SEX AND SENSITIVITY;Sex workers and sugar babies: empathetic engagement with vulnerable sources ~ Kathleen Jennings;Lifting the burden? The ethical implications of studying exemplary, not pathological, wartime sexual conduct ~ Angela Muvumba Sellström;Unexpected grey areas, innuendo and webs of complicity: experiences of researching sexual exploitation in UN peacekeeping missions ~ Henri Myrtinnen;Sexual exploitation, rape and abuse as a narrative and a strategy ~ Ingunn Bjørkhaug;CONCLUSIONS;Lessons for intervention fieldwork in violent and closed contacts ~ Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Morten Bøås.