Understanding peace research: methods and challenges

Research on conflict-ridden societies carries special challenges for the collection and evaluation of information about the conflict and its actors. First, due to the nature of information emerging, incentives to misrepresent and propaganda is common. News coverage is sometimes poor and reporting is often incomplete, selective and biased. Second, the sensitivity of the topic and the questions posed in peace and conflict research means that access to and the security of informants can be a problem. Peace and conflict research as a discipline encompasses a number of different approaches for obtaining empirical information which serve as a basis for analyzing various research topics. This book provides a comprehensive overview of different methods and sources of information-gathering for students and researchers, as well as the challenges presented by such work. It offers tools for evaluating sources and information; suggestions on where different types of information can be found; advice on using different types of sources, including news reports and written narratives; practical guidelines for constructing large-scale datasets; insights and guidelines for comparative fieldwork, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and surveys; and reflection and discussion on important ethical concerns in peace research.

Pt. I. Introduction. Doing empirical peace research / Kristine Höglund and Magnus Öberg -- The origins of contemporary peace research / Peter Wallensteen -- pt. II Evaluating information. Peace research and cource criticism : using historical methodology to improve information gathering and analysis / Tomislav Dulić -- Gathering conflict information using news resources / Magnus Öberg and Margareta Sollenberg -- News reports versus written narratives : collecting information using different types of empirical sources / Frida Möller -- pt. III The practice of information gathering. Systematic data collection : experiences from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program / Ralph Sundberg and Lotta Harbom -- Comparative field research in war-torn societies / Kristine Höglund -- In-depth interviewing : the process, skill and ethics of interviews in peace research / Karen Brounéus -- Focus groups : safety in numbers? / Johanna Söderström -- Survey research in conflict and post-conflict societies / Kristine Eck -- pt. IV Conclusions. Improving information gathering and evaluation / Kristine Höglund and Magnus Öberg.