9 Writing the wrongs: Keeping diaries and reflective practice
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Brendan Ciarán Browne
Abstract
This chapter emphasises the role diaries assume in being a useful repository for the practice of critical reflexive thinking; providing an important space for those engaged in conflict based field research to manage expectation, deal with emotion and highlight experience. Based on research conducted in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, the chapter reveals how meticulously maintained research diaries provided the emotional space needed to continuously evaluate the impact that such research was having upon personal wellbeing as well as the direction of the research as a whole. In the absence of commonly availed of familiar support networks, the research diary, in a conflict setting acts as a cathartic tool in providing the mental and emotional space to document fears and anxieties impacting upon the individual researcher.
Abstract
This chapter emphasises the role diaries assume in being a useful repository for the practice of critical reflexive thinking; providing an important space for those engaged in conflict based field research to manage expectation, deal with emotion and highlight experience. Based on research conducted in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, the chapter reveals how meticulously maintained research diaries provided the emotional space needed to continuously evaluate the impact that such research was having upon personal wellbeing as well as the direction of the research as a whole. In the absence of commonly availed of familiar support networks, the research diary, in a conflict setting acts as a cathartic tool in providing the mental and emotional space to document fears and anxieties impacting upon the individual researcher.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements v
- Notes on the editors and contributors vi
- Foreword x
- Introduction 1
-
Violence
- Conducting unleashing interviews where control means life or death 15
- Qualitative research in the shadow of violent conflict 31
- Vignette 1: The play I could not publish 47
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Uncertainty
- Ambivalent reflections on violence and peacebuilding: Activist research in Croatia and the wider post-Yugoslav space 55
- Intervention, autonomy and power in polarised societies 75
- Vignette 2: Packing for Kabul 95
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Identity and power
- Formidable fieldwork: Experiences of a lesbian researcher in post-conflict Northern Ireland 101
- Insider-outsider reflections on terrorism research in the coastal region of Kenya 119
- Vignette 3: Thinking about race and gender in conflict research 135
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Technology and social media
- Bodies of cyberwar: Violence and knowledge beyond corporeality 145
- Fields of insecurity: Responding to flows of information 161
- Vignette 4: Visual ethnographic encounters and silence in post-conflict Banda Aceh 179
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Methods
- Writing the wrongs: Keeping diaries and reflective practice 187
- Abetting atrocities? Reporting the perspectives of perpetrators in research on violence 205
- Empathy as a critical methodological tool in peace research 221
- Vignette 5: The limits of a part-time political ethnographer 239
- Index 245
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Acknowledgements v
- Notes on the editors and contributors vi
- Foreword x
- Introduction 1
-
Violence
- Conducting unleashing interviews where control means life or death 15
- Qualitative research in the shadow of violent conflict 31
- Vignette 1: The play I could not publish 47
-
Uncertainty
- Ambivalent reflections on violence and peacebuilding: Activist research in Croatia and the wider post-Yugoslav space 55
- Intervention, autonomy and power in polarised societies 75
- Vignette 2: Packing for Kabul 95
-
Identity and power
- Formidable fieldwork: Experiences of a lesbian researcher in post-conflict Northern Ireland 101
- Insider-outsider reflections on terrorism research in the coastal region of Kenya 119
- Vignette 3: Thinking about race and gender in conflict research 135
-
Technology and social media
- Bodies of cyberwar: Violence and knowledge beyond corporeality 145
- Fields of insecurity: Responding to flows of information 161
- Vignette 4: Visual ethnographic encounters and silence in post-conflict Banda Aceh 179
-
Methods
- Writing the wrongs: Keeping diaries and reflective practice 187
- Abetting atrocities? Reporting the perspectives of perpetrators in research on violence 205
- Empathy as a critical methodological tool in peace research 221
- Vignette 5: The limits of a part-time political ethnographer 239
- Index 245
