Ethnographic Peace Research

The Underappreciated Benefits of Long-term Fieldwork

Bibliographic Data

ID5852280
AuthorsGearoid Millar (0000-0002-0069-9742, University of Aberdeen, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume25
Issue5
Pages653-676
Publication date2018-01-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Peacekeeping (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1353-3312 • E-ISSN: 1743-906X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13533312.2017.1421860
OpenAlexW2783998212
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited101

While Peace Studies has always incorporated different research methodologies, large-N quantitative methods and state-level findings have dominated the literature and had most influence on policy and practice. Today, however, the limitations of peace interventions are commonly identified with the institutional, state-centric, and technocratic approaches associated with such limited understandings and their resultant policies. This paper argues, therefore, that the inability of these methods to examine local experiences of conflict, transition, and peace in diverse sociocultural settings contributes to inadequate policy formation and, thus, to problematic interventions. Indeed, the recent 'local turn' and its focus on the everyday, resistance, hybridity, and friction demands research that can better interpret local experiences of conflict, transition, and peace and, thereby, discover more locally salient practice. While this paper argues that an Ethnographic Peace Research (EPR) agenda must be central to such efforts, it also argues against applying the ethnographic label to work that is more suitably described as qualitative (site visits, interviews, focus groups, etc.). The paper argues that long-term fieldwork and close engagement with the subjects of peacebuilding must be required within any EPR agenda. The underappreciated benefits of such fieldwork are illustrated with examples from research in northern Sierra Leone

Hybridity · Participant observation · Peacebuilding · Technocracy · Cambodian History and Society · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance

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