Politically Sensitive Encounters: Ethnography, Access, and the Benefits of “Hanging Out”

Brendan Ciarán Browne; Ruari-Santiago McBride

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.11.1.02

Authors

Brendan Ciarán Browne Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland
Ruari-Santiago McBride Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.11.1.02

Keywords:

Fieldwork, Ethnography, Hanging Out, Politically Sensitive Environments, Researcher Legitimacy

Abstract

Negotiating politically sensitive research environments requires both a careful consideration of the methods involved and a great deal of personal resolve. In drawing upon two distinct yet comparable fieldwork experiences, this paper champions the benefits of ethnographic methods in seeking to gain positionality and research legitimacy among those identified as future research participants. The authors explore and discuss their use of the ethnographic concept of “hanging out” in politically sensitive environments when seeking to negotiate access to potentially hard to reach participants living in challenging research environments. Through an illustrative examination of their experiences in researching commemorative rituals in Palestine and mental health in a Northern Irish prison, both authors reflect upon their use of “hanging out” when seeking to break down barriers and gain acceptance among their target research participants. Their involvement in a range of activities, not directly related to the overall aims of the research project, highlights a need for qualitative researchers to adopt a flexible research design, one that embraces serendipitous or chance encounters, when seeking to gain access to hard to reach research participants or when issues of researcher legitimacy are particularly pronounced, such as is the case in politically sensitive research environments.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Brendan Ciarán Browne, Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland

Brendan Ciarán Browne is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice, Queen’s University Belfast. He holds Undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in Law, and Law and Human Rights and a Ph.D. in Sociology. His research experience includes conducting qualitative fieldwork studies in conflicted and post-conflict environments including Palestine and Northern Ireland. His ongoing research focuses on issues associated with growing up in conflicted and divided societies, political factions in conflict, and public commemoration and memory making in areas said to be experiencing conflict or a period of transition away from conflict.

Ruari-Santiago McBride, Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland

Ruari-Santiago McBride is a doctoral candidate at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He holds a Bachelor with Honors degree in Social Anthropology and Ethnomusicology, Msc Medical Anthropology, and MRes Degree in Social Research Methods. His research interests include mental health policy and practice in the criminal justice system.

References

Adler, Patricia A. and Peter Adler. 1987. Membership Roles in Field Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984973

Adler, Patricia and Peter Adler. 2012. “Keynote Address, Tales From the Field: Reflections on Four Decades of Ethnography.” Qualitative Sociology Review 3(1):11-32.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.8.1.02

APA. 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Google Scholar

Atkinson, Paul and Martyn Hammersley. 1994. “Ethnography and Participant Pbservation.” Pp. 248-260 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard S. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Bell, Karen. 2013. “Doing Qualitative Fieldwork in Cuba: Social Research in Politically Sensitive Locations.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 16(2):109-124.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.653217

Bolognani, Marta. 2007. “Islam, Ethnography, and Politics: Methodological Issue in Researching Amongst West Yorkshire Pakistanis in 2005.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 10(4):279-293.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570701546570

Browne, Brendan C. 2013. “Recording the Personal: The Benefits in Maintaining Research Diaries for Documenting the Emotional and Practical Challenges of Fieldwork in Unfamiliar Settings.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 12:420-435.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691301200121

Browne, Brendan C. and Luke Moffett. 2014. “Finding Your Feet in the Field: Critical Reflections of Early Career Researchers on Field Research in Transitional Societies.” Journal of Human Rights Practice 6(2):223-237.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huu010

Cohen, Nissim and Tamar Arieli. 2011. “Field Research in Conflict Environments: Methodological Challenges and Snowball Sampling.” Journal of Peace Research 48(4):423-435.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343311405698

DHSSPS. 2010. Personality Disorder: A Diagnosis for Inclusion. Belfast: DHSSPS.
Google Scholar

Feenan, Dermot. 2002. “Researching Paramilitary Violence in Northern Ireland.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 5(2):147-163.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570110045972

Feldman, Allen. 1991. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226240800.001.0001

Fischer, Frank, Gerald J. Miller, and Mara S. Sidney. 2007. Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420017007

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar

Geertz, Clifford. 1998. “Deep Hanging Out: Review of James Clifford, Routes, Travel, and Translation in the Late 20th Century and Pierre Clastres, Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians.” The New York Review of Books 45(1):69.
Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City: Doubleday.
Google Scholar

Gottlieb, Alma. 2006. “Ethnography: Theory and Methods.” Pp. 87-117 in A Handbook for Social Science Field Research: Essays & Bibliographic Sources on Research Design and Methods, edited by E. Perecman and S. R. Curran. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Gustavson, Leif and Joseph D. Cytrynbaum. 2003. “Illuminating Spaces: Relational Spaces, Complicity, and Multisited Ethnography.” Field Methods 15(3):252-270.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X03254903

Hill, Michael. 2009. The Public Policy Process. Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Google Scholar

Huschke, Susann. 2013. Kranksein in der Illegalität. Undokumentierte Migrant/-innen in Berlin. Eine medizinethnologische Studie. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/transcript.9783839423936

Jordan, Brigitte and Brinda Dalal. 2006. “Persuasive Encounters: Ethnography in the Corporation.” Field Methods 18(4):359-381.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X06292976

Kawulich, Barbara B. 2011. “Gatekeeping: An Ongoing Adventure in Research.” Field Methods 23(1):57-76.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X10383388

Knox, Colin. 2001. “Establishing Research Legitimacy in the Contested Political Ground of Contemporary Northern Ireland.” Qualitative Research 1(2):205-222.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100206

Magolda, Peter. M. 2000. “Accessing, Waiting, Plunging in, Wondering, and Writing: Retrospective Sense-Making of Fieldwork.” Field Methods 12:209-234.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X0001200303

Nordstrom, Carolyn and Antonius C. G. M. Robben, (eds.). 1995. Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Norman, Julie. 2009. “Got Trust? The Challenge of Gaining Access in Conflict Zones.” Pp. 71-91 in Surviving Field Research: Working in Violent and Difficult Situations, edited by C. L Sriram et al. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Pappe, Ilan. 2006. A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511992728

PRT. 2011. Review of the Northern Ireland Prison Service: Conditions, Management, and Oversight of All Prisons. Belfast: Prison Review Team.
Google Scholar

Radsch, Courtney. 2009. “From Cell Phones to Coffee: Issues of Access in Egypt and Lebanon.” Pp. 91-108 in Surviving Field Research: Working in Violent and Difficult Situations, edited by C. L Sriram et al. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Rhodes, Lorna A. 2001. “Toward an Anthropology of Prisons.” Annual Review of Anthropology 30:65-83.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.65

Schatz, Edward. 2009. Political Ethnography: What Immersion Contributes to the Study of Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226736785.001.0001

Shirlow, Peter and Kieran McEvoy. 2008. Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland. London: Pluto Press.
Google Scholar

Shore, Cris and Susan Wright. 1997. Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Shore, Cris, Susan Wright, and Davide Però. 2011. Policy Worlds: Anthropology and the Analysis of Contemporary Power. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
Google Scholar

Sluka, Jeffrey A. 1990. “Participant Observation in Violent Social Contexts.” Human Organization 49(2):114-126.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.49.2.h033174683462676

Sriram, Chandra Lekha et al. 2009. Surviving Field Research: Working in Violent and Difficult Situations. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Thissen, Wil A. H. and Warren E. Walker. 2013. Public Policy Analysis: New Developments. New York: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4602-6

Valentine, David. 2007. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390213

Wacquant, Loïc. 2002. “The Curious Eclipse of Prison Ethnography in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Ethnography 3(4):371-397.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138102003004012

Waldram, James B. 2009. “Challenges of Prison Ethnography.” Anthropology News 50(1):4-5.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-3502.2009.05014.x

WHO. 1992. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Google Scholar

Woodward, Kath. 2008. “Hanging Out and Hanging About: Insider/Outsider Research in the Sport of Boxing.” Ethnography 9(4):536-561.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138108096991

Yanow, Dvora. 2007. “Interpretation in Policy Analysis: On Methods and Practice.” Critical Policy Analysis 1(1): 110-122.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2007.9518511