Research Methods in Human Rights

Edited by Bård A. Andreassen, Professor, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, Norway, Claire Methven O’Brien, Reader in Law, School of Law, University of Dundee, UK and Hans-Otto Sano, Senior Researcher, Emeritus, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark

• Contents:Preface xii1 Introduction to Research Methods in Human Rights: approaches andtrends in human rights methodology and methods 1Bård A. Andreassen, Claire Methven O’Brien and Hans-Otto SanoPART I HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH AND LEGAL APPROACHES2 Legal methodologies and human rights legal research: challenges andopportunities 13Siobhán McInerney-Lankford3 Comparative human rights law 37Michael Riegner4 Studying human rights in plural legal contexts: an exploration of waterlaws in Zimbabwe 57Anne HellumPART II HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE ANDTHE HUMANITIES5 Comparative analyses and institutional pluralism in human rights research 79Bård A. Andreassen6 Economics and human rights 100Edward Anderson7 From the normative to the transnational: methods in the study of humanrights history 119Steven L. B. Jensen and Roland Burke8 The potential of ethnographic methods for human rights research 137Sally Engle MerryPART III QUALITATIVE METHODS IN HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH9 Qualitative methods of data generation and analysis 151Edzia Carvalho10 Inside the organization: methods of researching human rights andorganizational dynamics 178Hans-Otto Sano and Tomas Max MartinPART IV QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH11 Quantitative methods in advocacy-oriented human rights research 201Margaret Satterthwaite and Daniel Kacinski12 A comparative assessment of composite measures of human rights performance 223Annie Watson, Matthew Rains, Stephen Bagwell, and K. Chad Clay13 Social network analysis in human rights research 247Anna-Luise Chané and Arjun SharmaPART V CHALLENGES AND PRACTICES IN HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH14 Research ethics for human rights researchers 267George Ulrich15 Mixed methods in human rights 290Malcolm Langford16 Human rights-based approaches: methodological challenges 319Wouter Vandenhole17 Researching the human rights impact of new and emerging digital technologies 337Lorna McGregor18 Assessing work at the intersection of health and human rights: why,how and who? 360Laura Ferguson

‘The expert contributions represent critical and reflective assessments of how to research human rights. The book discusses different disciplinary perspectives, including law, economics, history, political science and ethnography. In a global setting where major social challenges require multidisciplinary responses, the book is especially welcome for the careful presentation and exploration of different disciplinary perspectives, qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches. The contributors offer helpful discussions of the nuances and complexities within each approach. Revised and with welcome new chapters covering critical issues such as comparative human rights and the impact of digital technologies, this remains an essential work for any reading list on human rights.’