Abstract
How to obtain access to people in order to carry out insightful fieldwork is a common concern for many social scientists. The access problem appears very tricky when the targeted people hold strategic or prestigious professional positions. And it is even more thorny in the case of members of informal clubs, groups, or institutions that are hard to grasp. This is the case, for example, with French high civil servants who belong to informal networks, the grands corps, that are usually described as a mix of a club, a network, a family, or a mafia (Kosciusko-Morizet, 1973).
No battle plan survives contact with the enemy
(Helmuth von Moltke)1
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© 2013 Julie Gervais
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Gervais, J. (2013). When Access Is Restricted: Craftiness and Combining Methods in the Study of a Secretive Elite. In: Bruter, M., Lodge, M. (eds) Political Science Research Methods in Action. Research Methods Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318268_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318268_8
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