PO939 Qualitative Methods: Data Collection and Analysis

1
PO939 Qualitative Methods Data Collection and
Analysis
Week 8 Fieldwork undertaking sensitive or
dangerous research
2

• This weeks agenda
• Fieldwork
• Translating what we do in the field into
  written-up research
• especially the transformation of field notes
  into published work
• Dilemmas of qualitative research undertaken in
  dangerous or crisis situations
• Dilemmas of qualitative research undertaken on
  sensitive topics

• What is the field in any given piece of
  research?
• where we undertake the various methods that we
  have chosen to employ in our research
• normally this is a physical place, where we
  find the subjects of our research (particularly
  those we want to speak with via interviews or
  through forms of ethnography)
• but the field may also be the archive / the
  documentary resource / the source of data

The welfare of the researcher The quality of the
research
3
In the field

• Consider the research projects below. Methods
  have already been designed.
• What would you need to think about before
  travelling to the field in order to make the
  fieldwork effective?
• Once in the field, what should you do in order to
  make sure that the research is carried out
  successfully?

• Women's Political Activism in Northern Ireland
  Pre- and Post- the Belfast Agreement (interviews)
• A Longitudinal Study of Victims' Attitudes
  Towards Reparations (compensation for previous
  human rights abuses) in South Africa (interviews
  and surveys)
• Women's Reception of Islamic Education in
  Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (interviews and
  participant observation)

4
Taking notes in the field
What the researcher does at the word processor
and what he or she does in the field have a
meaningful interaction Nicolas H Wolfinger On
Writing Fieldnotes Collection Strategies and
Background Expectations, Qualitative Research
2(1), 2002, pp. 85-95

• What do you understand by this statement in
  terms of taking notes during fieldwork?
• And does Wolfinger mean when he talks about
  background or tacit expectations

5

• Views of contemporary security policy held by
  survivors of terrorist attacks (interviews)
• The socialisation of child soldiers in African
  war zones (interviews)
• An analysis of twentieth century acts of
  genocide (archive and documentary sources
  including official reports, contemporary first
  hand accounts and personal memoirs)

Research on sensitive topics
if we undertake to study human lives, we have to
be ready to face human feelings, Ely et al cited
in V. Dickson-Swift et al Doing Sensitive
Research What Challenges do Qualitative
Researchers Face?, Qualitative Research 7(2),
pp.155-175.

• Consider the research projects above (noting the
  principal methods employed)
• What dilemmas might confront the researcher when
  undertaking each of these projects?
• How should researchers cope with the emotional
  consequences of the research they undertake?
  Should researchers avoid becoming emotionally
  involved with their research?

6
Research in dangerous areas

• What might place a researcher in danger in the
  field?
• How might the decision to study extremist groups
  pose problems for a researchers career prospects
  as an academic?
• Are there any general rules of thumb for
  researchers conducting work in dangerous
  situations?