CfP by the Centre for Peace Studies: Methodologies in Peace Research

This conference addresses the critical and timely issues of research methodologies in peace and conflict studies, including empirical and ethical aspects of research into peace, conflict and division, widely defined.

This conference addresses the critical and timely issues of research methodologies in peace and conflict studies, including empirical and ethical aspects of research into peace, conflict and division, widely defined.
Despite the substantial body of literature about research methods and the high level of interest and activity in peace research, little attention has been explicitly devoted to research methodologies in peace research. There are few easily accessible or available academic works, journal articles or textbooks which deal specifically with the methodological, empirical, safety and ethical challenges of carrying out research in areas of tension and stress or into post conflict and divided societies. Furthermore, contemporary international debates are increasingly focussing on the perceived and consequential threats to peace posed by terrorism, extremism and immigration in stable societies. State/society relations and socio-economic/spatial divisions in post-conflict and more stable societies are also becoming a prevalent focus in peace research. These issues and debates contribute to widening the definition and remit of traditional notions of peace research and overcome previous definitional challenges to broaden the remit of topics that have a positive contribution to make to peace studies research and academic debate.
Examples of the types of issues likely to be explored are:
- Planning research in areas of tension and conflict;
- Dealing with difficult situations and dangerous places;
- The limitations and challenges of methods used in peace research;
- New and innovative ways of using methods and multi-method techniques in peace research;
- Ethical and safety issues;
- Collecting, handling and analysing sensitive data;
- Generating theory from sensitive data; and
- Decision making strategies and adapting methods during fieldwork.
Submission information
Please email abstracts of proposed papers and queries about papers to Diane Lister at dianel@sv.uit.no and Frank Möller at Frank.Moller@uta.fi by 15th January 2007. Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words with double spaced pages. All accepted presentations will be published in a conference report that will be part of the \'CPS Working Papers\'.