Fieldwork Under Surveillance: Rethinking Relations of Trust, Vulnerability, and State Power

Ryan, Caitlin Micaela; Tynen, Sarah

doi:10.1111/gere.12360

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Louis (2007) extends such notions in indigenous methodologies to consider how “the entire research process must be a collaboration” and outputs must be “written in understandable language and shared with and receive the endorsement of the Indigenous community” (p. 133). In contentious Global South contexts, we underscore that questions of “who” constitutes the “community'’ can be an ethically fraught question (Ryan & Tynen, 2019). Our choices in our two case studies, both methodological and beyond, reflected commitments to voices from the margins such as subordinated religious and political identities in the Philippines, as well as critical engagement with a populist authoritarian government regime.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, extractive relationships between digital elites and marginalized groups may also result in heightened visibilities that likewise exacerbate issues of surveillance and targeted violence (Arora, 2016; Milan & Milan, 2016). Such contradictory and inequitable arrangements have been linked to a variety of issues throughout the Global South, including the proliferation of digital disinformation and the hijacking of digital infrastructures for authoritarian control, with few avenues for accountability (Freelon & Wells, 2020; Ryan & Tynen, 2019).…”

Section: Big Data and Decolonial Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Foundations for a decolonial big data psychology

Montiel

Uyheng

2021

Journal of Social Issues

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The accelerated datafication of social life has led to increased interest in advancing the use of big data in psychology. However, prevailing methodological preoccupations in big data psychology elide foundational issues which amplify the problems of modernity/coloniality, including the suppression of marginalized psychologies and the widened gap between researchers and their subjects. We propose decolonial foundations for utilizing big data in psychological scholarship. We move beyond prevailing technical concerns with data processing, to engage situated practices of knowledge production. The ontological object of computing shifts from a universal psychology of numerous individuals, to a localized psychology of collectives. Epistemological priorities shift from contextfree definition and control, to prioritizing temporal responsiveness and linguistic fidelity to emergent psychological phenomena. Ethical guidelines extend beyond issues of personal privacy, and address sociopolitical concerns in fragile democracies. Finally, reflexivities from the margins account for unequal systems that situate psychologists, big data, and the phenomena they study within the plurality of Global Souths. Two Philippine case studies operationalize these principles through localized data collection practices, participatory algorithmic design, interrogation of bias, and wrestling with state encroachments. We conclude with decolonial directions for advancing equitable practices of knowledge production within the computational and psychological sciences.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Big Data and Decolonial Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Foundations for a decolonial big data psychology

Montiel

Uyheng

2021

Journal of Social Issues

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“…For example, as Li (2021, p. 3) suggests for the case of elite interviews in China, "the elite interviewee's sphere of influence -national or local -is crucial to shaping interview access and power dynamics." Similarly, Ryan & Tynen (2020) show that QIR embedded in China's culture of surveillance impacts on the core issue of trust and rapport.…”

Section: Societies' Power Effects On Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nexus between Methods and Power in Sociological Research

Schmitz

Hamann

2022

Am Soc

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This article develops an integrative perspective on the nexus between power and sociological research methods. By reflecting upon two of the most widely used methodological approaches in sociology – standardized survey research and qualitative interview research – we develop a comprehensive heuristic framework for examining the ways in which the use of sociological methods affects and intersects any social scientific practice: (1) the power effects that societies and institutional settings exert on methods and the use of methods, (2) power in the use and implementation of methods, and (3) the power effects that methods and the use of methods exert on societies and institutional settings.

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“…We deliberately decided not to use recording devices in our interviews. Due to the authoritarian (or transitional) research environment we worked in, we tried to minimize risks and vulnerabilities to surveillance (digital and otherwise) for both our contacts and us (Ryan and Tynen 2020). We stored contact information of our interviewees and the notes we took separately and encrypted sensitive files.…”

Section: Conducting Fieldwork In the Peripherymentioning

confidence: 99%

3. Doing Research on Subnational Levels of Autocracies: Field Work and Methodological Approach

Bohn¹,

Demmelhuber²,

Vollmann³

2021

Decentralization in the Middle East and North Africa

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Field research in non-democratic contexts is challenging. Even prior to the Arab uprisings the clustering of autocratic regimes in the MENA region held great obstacles regarding access to the field, access to data and archives, and identification of potential interview partners or participants for survey research. In most cases, research played out within legal "grey zones" in terms of official permissions to conduct research. International scholars were granted access to the field via tourist visas and fieldwork was conducted with the implicit toleration of the security apparatus. Even so, there is a tacit knowledge among the research community regarding the unvoiced but clearly defined "red lines" that limit the scope and possibilities of research and movement in the field.The Arab uprisings were more than a turning point for the social and political configuration of the region. The newly evolving political map impacts research on and in the region. The reasons for this are manifold, but three related aspects stand out: First, in times of popular upheavals narratives of alleged clandestine interventions by external actors lent cause to ruling regimes to identify actors from abroad purportedly responsible for instability and turmoil (also referred to as "the third hand", Wessel 2018). This led to a tremendous increase in suspicion toward foreign researchers, who are increasingly considered agents of external intelligence or other external parties. Second, the security apparatus in most MENA countries invested a lot in domestic surveillance techniques, both in offline and online, making it even more difficult to acquire the consent of potential interviewees. And third, in times of changing makeup of political power and not fully established top-down capacities, competing security/police branches may lead to diverging interpretations of what is allowed and lawful and what is not. Experiences of arbitrary arrests and misuse of power have been the consequence for many researchers in the MENA region. This fundamental change has led to a thriving literature in the field of how to do research in authoritarian contexts, which was long overdue (Glasius et al. 2018; Grimm et al. 2020). Based on these context factors, our research was driven by several methodological premises, benchmarks, and tools.

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Fieldwork Under Surveillance: Rethinking Relations of Trust, Vulnerability, and State Power

Cited by 18 publications

References 23 publications

Foundations for a decolonial big data psychology

Foundations for a decolonial big data psychology

The Nexus between Methods and Power in Sociological Research

3. Doing Research on Subnational Levels of Autocracies: Field Work and Methodological Approach

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