Abstract
The text provides personal accounts of a researcher who self-identifies as Global South scholar. By telling his personal experiences as a researcher and, more importantly, as a subject of research, the author tries to identify some of stereotypes, obstacles and prejudices international scholars have in approaching local counterparts while doing their fieldwork related to peace and conflict studies. Accordingly, the text suggests possible ways how an international researcher could approach the local by employing notions of patience, empathy, assistance and cultural humility. By doing this, the author emphasizes that these human acts are as equally important as rigorous research methods and standards in understanding the complexities of the local setting where research takes place.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Acharya, Amitav. 2014. Global International Relations (IR) and regional worlds: A new agenda for international studies. International Studies Quarterly 58 (4): 647–665.
Adler-Nissen, Rebecca. 2014. Stigma management in International Relations: Transgressive identities, norms and order in international society. International Organizations 68 (1): 143–176.
Bartlett, Will. 2009. Economic development in the European super-periphery: Evidence from the Western Balkans. Economic Annals LIV (181): 21–44.
Bechev, Dimitar. 2012. The periphery of the periphery: The Western Balkans and the Euro crisis. European Council on Foreign Affairs Policy Brief.
Buzan, Barry, and Amitav Acharya. 2007. Why is there no non-Western International Relations Theory? An introduction. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 7 (3): 287–312.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 1992. Postcoloniality and the artifice of history: Who speaks for “Indian” pasts? Representations 37 (1): 1–26.
Chandler, David. 2014. Resilience and the ‘everyday’: Beyond the paradox of ‘liberal peace’. Review of International Studies 41 (1): 27–48.
Divjak, Boris, and Michael Pugh. 2008. The political economy of corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. International Peacekeeping 15 (3): 373–386.
Džuverović, Nemanja. 2018. Why local voices matter: Participation of local researchers in the liberal peace debate. Peacebuilding 6 (2): 111–126.
Džuverović, Nemanja. 2019. Contextualization of the local: A predisposition of former Yugoslav states to liberal peace. Southeastern Europe 43 (2): 135–157.
Firchow, Pamina, and Roger Mac Ginty. 2017. Including hard-to-access populations using mobile phone surveys and participatory indicators. Sociological Methods & Research 45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124117729702.
Hansen, Lene. 2006. Security as practice: Discourse analysis and the Bosnian War. New York: Routledge.
Kaplan, Robert. 1994. Balkan ghosts. A journey through history. New York: Vintage Books.
Kipling, Radjard. 1899. The white man’s burden: A poem. New York: Doubleday and McClure Co.
Lemay-Hébert, Nicolas, and Stefanie Kappler. 2016. What attachment to peace? Exploring the normative and material dimensions of local ownership in peacebuilding. Review of International Studies 42 (5): 895–914.
Lister, Ruth. 2004. Poverty. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lugano, Geoffrey. 2017. Counter-shaming the International Criminal Court’s intervention as neocolonial: Lessons from Kenya. International Journal of Transitional Justice 11: 9–29.
Macaspac, Nerve Valerio. 2017. Suspicion and ethnographic peace research (notes from a local researcher). International Peacekeeping 25 (5): 677–694.
Mac Ginty, Roger. 2011. International peacebuilding and local resistance: Hybrid forms of peace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mac Ginty, Roger, and Oliver Richmond. 2013. The local turn in peace building: A critical agenda for peace. Third World Quarterly 34 (5): 763–783.
Milanović, Branko. 2007. The worlds apart: Measuring international and global inequality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pugh, Michael. 2005. The political economy of peacebuilding: A critical theory perspective. International Journal of Peace Studies 10 (2): 23–42.
Richmond, Oliver P., and Roger Mac Ginty. 2015. Where now for the critique of the liberal peace? Cooperation and Conflict 50 (2): 171–189.
Scott, James. 1992. Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Smyth, Marie, and Gillian Robinson (eds.). 2001. Researching violently divided societies: Ethical and methodological issues. London: Pluto Press.
Todorova, Maria. 2009. Imagining the Balkans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2006. The ethical challenges of field research in conflict zones. Qualitative Sociology 29 (3): 373–386.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Džuverović, N. (2021). Confessions of a Local Researcher. In: Mac Ginty, R., Brett, R., Vogel, B. (eds) The Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46433-2_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46433-2_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46432-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46433-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)