TY - JOUR
T1 - The 'tribal politics' of field research
T2 - A reflection on power and partiality in 21st-century warzones
AU - Malejacq, Romain
AU - Mukhopadhyay, Dipali
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© American Political Science Association 2016.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Can fieldwork still be done in today's most violent warzones? We contend that long-held methodological principles about power and impartiality do not hold in today's conflict-ridden environments. Research of this kind can still be pursued, but only if the scholar's place is reconceived as one of limited power and unavoidable partiality. We argue that those still able to do fieldwork in sites of increasing danger do so by virtue of building their own 'tribes,' forming and joining different social micro-systems to collect data and, in some cases, survive. Field research must, therefore, be recognized as its own form of foreign intervention. In considering the future of political science research in the most challenging war-Torn settings, we examine the risks and opportunities that accompany 'tribal politics' of this kind and underline the importance of reflecting on our own positionality in the process of knowledge production.
AB - Can fieldwork still be done in today's most violent warzones? We contend that long-held methodological principles about power and impartiality do not hold in today's conflict-ridden environments. Research of this kind can still be pursued, but only if the scholar's place is reconceived as one of limited power and unavoidable partiality. We argue that those still able to do fieldwork in sites of increasing danger do so by virtue of building their own 'tribes,' forming and joining different social micro-systems to collect data and, in some cases, survive. Field research must, therefore, be recognized as its own form of foreign intervention. In considering the future of political science research in the most challenging war-Torn settings, we examine the risks and opportunities that accompany 'tribal politics' of this kind and underline the importance of reflecting on our own positionality in the process of knowledge production.
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U2 - 10.1017/S1537592716002899
DO - 10.1017/S1537592716002899
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85018459129
SN - 1537-5927
VL - 14
SP - 1011
EP - 1028
JO - Perspectives on Politics
JF - Perspectives on Politics
IS - 4
ER -