Knowledge production in/about conflict and intervention: finding ‘facts’, telling ‘truth’

Guevara, Berit Bliesemann de; Kostić, Roland

doi:10.1080/17502977.2017.1287635

Cited by 48 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The subordination of research to Western academic markets impacts on the choice of research methodologies and framings and topics. As Bliesemann de Guevara and Kostic (2017: 11) argue, the neoliberalization of knowledge production at Western universities puts pressure on academics, particularly junior ones, to deliver outputs that can compete in the ‘marketplace of ideas’, rather than producing critical knowledge (see Lottholz, 2017). Research grants are awarded to compelling applications, which are time-intensive to prepare and limit the time allotted to empirical fieldwork, so that the contextual immersion necessary to navigate safety and access issues often remains impossible.…”

Section: Current Knowledge Production Demands and Covert Research In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers thus find themselves having to satisfy the need for funding, obtaining rich empirical data and successful publishing in this political marketplace (Bliesemann de Guevara and Kostic, 2017: 7). But reproducing dominant Western-centric narratives also exhibits them to the aforementioned problems of access and safety.…”

Section: Current Knowledge Production Demands and Covert Research In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recognizing the never quite absent: de facto usage, ethical issues, and applications of covert research in difficult research contexts

Kluczewska

Lottholz

2021

Qualitative Research

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This article scrutinizes and reconceptualizes covert research in social science. Surveying recent literature about this research method, we reflect on the ethical and safety implications stemming from the widespread, even if well-intended, lack of transparency characterizing many research projects, especially ones conducted in difficult research contexts. While the standard definition of covert research holds that researchers deliberately do not declare to research subjects that academic research is taking place, we argue that the remoteness of Western academia from most researched contexts often a priori renders field research at least partially covert, irrespective of the researcher’s intentions. This is because its aims, utility, and expected outputs are hard to understand for research participants unrelated to academia. We illustrate this argument by analyzing our own fieldwork experiences in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to critically reflect on the de facto use of covert techniques by social researchers.

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Section: Current Knowledge Production Demands and Covert Research In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Knowledge Production Demands and Covert Research In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing the never quite absent: de facto usage, ethical issues, and applications of covert research in difficult research contexts

Kluczewska

Lottholz

2021

Qualitative Research

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“…The World Bank, for example, uses in-house and academic research to legitimise its existence, mandate and practices (Weaver 2008). Important lines of investigation include how such expertise is produced (Bueger 2015), the conditions of that production (Mosse 2011;Bliesemann de Guevara and Kostić 2017), and the ways in which such expertise is transformed into authority (Sending 2015).…”

Section: Academic Research and The Humanitarian Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creative appropriation: academic knowledge and interventions against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Veit

Tschörner

2019

Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding

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Recent academic research has questioned assumptions about sexual violence in (post-) conflict contexts. Gender norms rather than military decision-making have been found to constitute a major underlying reason for wartime sexual violence. In this contribution, we investigate whether international organisations seeking to prevent sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo have accordingly changed their analytical perspectives and modified policies and programming. We find that many, but not all, such organisations creatively appropriate new academic work in their policy and project documents. However, incentives for continuity in the humanitarian field have slackened the pace of any substantive practical changes.

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Knowledge Production, Ownership and the Power of Definition: Perspectives on and from Sub-Saharan Africa

Melber

2018

Building Development Studies for the New Millennium

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Knowledge production in/about conflict and intervention: finding ‘facts’, telling ‘truth’

Cited by 48 publications

References 51 publications

Recognizing the never quite absent: de facto usage, ethical issues, and applications of covert research in difficult research contexts

Recognizing the never quite absent: de facto usage, ethical issues, and applications of covert research in difficult research contexts

Creative appropriation: academic knowledge and interventions against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Knowledge Production, Ownership and the Power of Definition: Perspectives on and from Sub-Saharan Africa

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