Confronting Selection Bias: The Normative and Empirical Risks of Data Collection in Violent Contexts

Bell-Martin, Rebecca V.; Marston, Jerome F.

doi:10.1080/14650045.2019.1659780

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Not only does this bring the validity of research findings into question, but when policy or practice is evidenced by research that has selection bias, the resulting impact may benefit specific groups over others and create harm overall. That is to say, selection bias may result in the design of public services for some at the expense of others (Bell-Martin and Marson, 2021). This can then result in exacerbating existing conflict triggers that may be based on inequality or grievance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different groups may have a vested interest in controlling international perceptions of local realities. The lack of access can serve to further ‘marginalise the already marginalised’ (Bell-Martin and Marson, 2021). In order to overcome the issue of limited access, many external researchers rely on local actors, including the use of local facilitators and ‘fixers’, who negotiate access, arrange meetings and support foreign researchers and journalists.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethical research landscapes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: understanding the challenges

Shanks

Paulson

2022

Research Ethics

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As the prevalence of conflict and fragility continue to rise around the world, research is increasingly heralded as a solution. However, current ethical guidelines for working in areas suffering from institutional and social fragility, insecurity or violent conflict have been heavily critiqued as highly abstract; focussed only on data collection; detached from the realities of academia in the Global South; and potentially extractive. This article seeks to respond to that assessment by spotlighting some of the most prevalent challenges researchers face in the pursuit of ethical working practices. It explores the material and epistemic injustices that often shape and underpin research structures and relationships in these contexts. The paper draws on the authors’ experiences of research in conflict-affected and fragile contexts over the last fifteen years and on workshop discussions with researchers based in fragile and conflict-affected contexts conducted in Amman, Bogotá and Dhaka in 2019-2020. The paper works from the premise that achieving ethical research in fragile spaces is not dependent solely on activity at the site of research, but also on decisions made across the entire ecosystem of a research project. It therefore interrogates the full research landscape, from funding models, to research design (including research topics, partnerships, methods, participant selection, and researcher positionality), to dissemination plans and ethical gatekeeping. The paper critically reflects on inequities in the processes of knowledge production about conflict and fragility and the key ethical challenges that researchers encounter. It highlights the need for further guidance, support and accountability to ensure ethical research practices.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical research landscapes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: understanding the challenges

Shanks

Paulson

2022

Research Ethics

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“…The study of criminal governance poses salient methodological challenges. Working in lowinformation, dangerous areas renders investigators more susceptible to methodological missteps, in particular selection bias, that may undermine the validity of their findings (Bell-Martin & Marston, 2019;Koonings et al, 2019). Against this backdrop, the range, quality, and insight of findings rendered by this literature are simply remarkable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research on criminal governance naturally raises important ethical questions. At least three sets of issues deserve attention, including (a) sensitive research vs. neutrality and power relations, (b) informed consent, and (c) confidentiality and protective issues (Bell-Martin & Marston, 2019). The way to address these issues is to develop a constant reflexivity in the research design that embeds situational ethics while having a broad toolkit of mechanisms before and after the fieldwork is done (Koonings et al, 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criminal Governance in Latin America

Mantilla¹,

Feldmann²

2021

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

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Criminal governance understood as the regulation of social order, including informal or illegal economies through the establishment of formal and informal institutions that replace, complement, or compete with the state and distribute public goods (e.g., social services, justice, and security) is an expanding area of inquiry in the field of criminology. This analysis, which centers on Latin America, a region beset by this problem, unpacks specific dimensions of this concept including the overlap between the state and criminal orders, the relationship between violence and consent, and violence management through selective forms of enforcement. In so doing it sheds light on how changes in the architecture of governance of many underprivileged communities across the world, but especially in the Global South, is affecting in critical ways the lives and wellbeing of millions of individuals. The discussion underscores the need to reinforce interdisciplinary work linking criminology and other disciplines (e.g., political science, sociology, law, anthropology) as a way to enhance our understanding of the profound impact that criminal governance orders have on the political and social dimensions of contemporary societies.

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“…Where associations are either absent or ineffective, residents wishing to remain must seek out other means. Next, local associations may be corrupted by criminal groups (Abello-Colak & Guarneros-Meza, 2014) or exclude certain residents based on ethnicity, political leanings, or socio-economic status (Bell-Martin & Marston, 2019, p. 10). A resident threatened by the criminal group, then, would not be able to appeal to the local association, nor would excluded residents, all of whom would need an alternative means to remain in their homes.…”

Section: Alternative Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resisting Displacement: Leveraging Interpersonal Ties to Remain despite Criminal Violence in Medellín, Colombia

Marston

2020

Comparative Political Studies

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Although civilians across the globe are fleeing conflict in record numbers, the reality is that far more remain behind. In addition to traditional wars, people stay in territories governed by criminal organizations. How might individuals threatened with displacement by a criminal gang manage to resist? Drawing on intensive participant observation and interviews in marginal neighborhoods of Medellín, Colombia, I argue that the urban residents most likely to remain despite being at risk of displacement are the “well connected.” Despite threats, they leverage ties to a community figure or member of the armed group to stay. I test a number of related hypotheses using an original survey and survey experiment. Unlike other work stressing that residents are trapped by scant resources or remain only by joining local associations or belligerents, my theory reveals residents’ agency and neutrality as they seek safety and security in conditions of state absence.

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Confronting Selection Bias: The Normative and Empirical Risks of Data Collection in Violent Contexts

Cited by 11 publications

References 47 publications

Ethical research landscapes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: understanding the challenges

Ethical research landscapes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts: understanding the challenges

Criminal Governance in Latin America

Resisting Displacement: Leveraging Interpersonal Ties to Remain despite Criminal Violence in Medellín, Colombia

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