Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Positionality and Power: The Politics of Peacekeeping Research

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13533310903184499

1743-906X

Marsha Henry, Paul Higate, Gurchathen Sanghera,

Global Peace and Security Dynamics

Abstract Despite a growth in social studies of peacekeeping, there has been little written on field experiences in such contexts. This article examines the role of the researcher in influencing the research process and product in two peacekeeping sites, Liberia and Kosovo. Although researchers are often positioned in powerful ways vis-à-vis researchees, the multiplicity and complexity of their positionality are often overlooked. By drawing on examples from team research conducted, the article suggests that these positionings give rise to unconventional and contradictory power relations. By reflecting on the role of the researcher(s) and the politics of research itself, we hope to engender more conscientious peacekeeping research. Acknowledgements This research was supported by an Economic and Social Research Council New Security Challenges Programme Grant (RES-223-25-0061) and also involved conducting research in Cyprus and Haiti. The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees, Richard Little, Ryerson Christie, Victoria Basham, Karen Tucker, Jutta Weldes, Christina Rowley, Lara Coleman, Daniel Conway, Terrell Carver, Ruth Jacobson, Suruchi Thapar-Björkert, Jonathan Reinarz, Lily Ling, Tom Slater, Anna Agathangelou, Everita Silina, Cynthia Enloe and Cynthia Cockburn for conversations, comments and suggestions. Notes Erving Goffman's theory of dramaturgical performativity suggests that off-stage acts are those which involve members outside of the formal performance and which take place behind the scenes. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1959. Marilyn Strathern (ed.), Audit Cultures. Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics and the Academy, London: Routledge, 1991, p.8. Linda McDowell, 'Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol.17, No.4, 1992, pp.399–41; Gillian Rose, 'Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics', Progress in Human Geography, Vol.21, 1997, pp.305–20; Liz Stanley and Sue Wise, Breaking out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology, London: Routledge, 1993. Renato Rosaldo, Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Kirstin Loftsdottir, 'Never Forgetting? Gender and Racial–Ethnic Identity during Fieldwork', Social Anthropology, Vol.10, No.3, 2002, p.315. Richa Nagar, 'Footloose Researchers, "Travelling" Theories and the Politics of Transnational Feminist Praxis', Gender, Place and Culture, Vol.9, No.2, 2002, p.183. Rose (n.3 above), p.307. Kim England, 'Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research', Professional Geographer, Vol.46, No.1,1994, pp.80–9; Andrew Herod, 'Reflections on Interviewing Foreign Elites: Praxis, Positionality, Validity, and the Cult of the Insider', Geoforum, Vol.30, 1999, pp.313–27; Mohammad Robina, '"Insiders" and/or "Outsiders": Positionality, Theory and Praxis', in Melanie Limb and Claire Dwyer (eds) Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers, London: Arnold, 2001, pp.101–14; Elizabeth Chacko, 'Positionality and Praxis: Fieldwork Experiences in Rural India', Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.25, No.1, 2004, pp.51–63. Beverley Mullings, 'Insider or Outsider, Both or Neither: Some Dilemmas of Interviewing in a Cross-Cultural Setting', Geoforum, Vol.30, 1999, pp.337–50; Herod (n.8 above); Gustav Visser, 'Researcher Positionality and Political–Temporal Contingency in a Post Apartheid Research Environment', LSE Online Research Papers, 2003, accessed at www.lse.ac.uk/collections/geographyAndEnvironment/research/Researchpapers/rp59.pdf. Herod (n.8 above); Marsha Henry, '"Where Are You Really From?" Representation, Identity and Power in the Fieldwork Experiences of a South Asian Diasporic', Qualitative Research, Vol.3, No.2, 2004, pp.229–42; Marsha Henry, 'If the Shoe Fits: Authenticity, Authority and Agency Feminist Diasporic Research', Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.30, 2007, pp.70–80. Pnina Werbner, 'The Translocation of Culture: Migration, Community, and the Force of Multiculturalism in History', Sociological Review, Vol.53, No.4, 2005, pp.745–68. Suruchi Thapar-Björkert and Marsha Henry, 'Reassessing the Research Relationship: Location, Position and Power in Fieldwork Accounts', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Vol.7, No.5, 2004, pp.363–81. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993; Carolyn Nordstrom, A Different Kind of War Story, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997; Christopher Kovats-Bernat, 'Negotiating Dangerous Fields: Pragmatic Strategies for Fieldwork amid Violence and Terror', American Anthropologist, Vol.104, No.1, 2002, pp.1–15; Gurchathen Sanghera and Suruchi Thapar-Björkert, 'Methodological Dilemmas: Gatekeepers and Positionality in Bradford', Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.31, No.3, 2008, pp.543–62. Pat Caplan, Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide for Surviving in the Academic World, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993, p.178. Heather Farrow, Pamela Moss and Barbara Shaw, 'Symposium on Feminist Participatory Research', Antipode, Vol.27, No.1, 1995, pp.71–4, 100. Roland Paris, 'International Peacebuilding and the "Mission Civilisatrice"', Review of International Studies, Vol.28, No.4, 2002, pp.637–56; Sherene Razack, Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Peacekeeping Affair and the New Imperialism, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Betts Fetherston and Carolyn Nordstrom 'Overcoming Habitus in Conflict Management: UN Peacekeeping and War Zone Ethnography', Peace & Change, Vol. 20, No.1, 1995, pp.94–119; Robert Rubinstein, 'Methodological Challenges in the Ethnographic Study of Multilateral Peacekeeping', Political and Legal Anthropology, Vol.21, No.1, 1998, pp.138–49; Robert Rubinstein, Peacekeeping under Fire: Culture and Intervention, Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008; Eyal Ben-Ari and Efrat Elron, 'Blue Helmets and White Armor: Multi-nationalism and Multi-culturalism among UN Peacekeeping Forces', City and Society, Vol.13, 2002, pp.271–302; Amitav Ghosh, 'The Global Reservation: Notes toward an Ethnography of International Peacekeeping', Cultural Anthropology, Vol.9, No.3, 1994, pp.412–22; Thomas Britt and Amy Adler, The Psychology of the Peacekeeper: Lessons from the Field, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003; Liora Sion, 'Dutch Peacekeepers and Host Environments in the Balkans: An Ethnographic Perspective', International Peacekeeping, Vol.15, No.2, 2008, pp.201–13. Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius Robben (eds), Fieldwork under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995; Antonius Robben and Jeff Sluka, Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthology, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006; Daniel Hoffman and Stephen Lubkemann, 'Warscape Ethnography in West Africa and the Anthropology of "Events"', Anthropological Quarterly, Vol.78, No.2, 2005, pp.315–27; Kovats-Bernat (n.13 above); Scheper-Hughes (n.13 above); Marie Smyth and Gillian Robinson (eds), Researching Violently Divided Societies: Ethical and Methodological Issues, London: Pluto Press, 2001; John King, Chandra Lekha Sriram, Julie Mertus, Olga Martin-Ortega and Johanna Herman, Surviving Research: Doing Fieldwork in Violent and Difficult Situations, London: Routledge, 2009. Giuseppe Caforio and Marina Nuciari, 'Social Research and the Military: A Cross-National Expert Survey', in Giuseppe Caforio (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2003, pp.35–56; John Hockey 'Putting down Smoke: Emotion and Engagement in Participant Observation', in Keith Carter and Sara Delamont (eds) Qualitative Research: The Emotional Dimension, Aldershot, UK: Avebury, 1996; Paul Higate and Ailsa Cameron, 'Reflexivity and Researching the Military', Armed Forces and Society, Vol.32, No.2, 2006, pp.219–33; Daniel Conway, 'Masculinities and Narrating the Past: Experiences of Researching White Men Who Refused to Serve in the Apartheid Army', Qualitative Research, Vol.8, 2008, pp.347–54; Liora Sion and Elron Ben-Ari, 'Imagined Masculinity: Body, Sexuality, and Family among Israeli Military Reserves', Symbolic Interaction, Vol.32, No.1, 2009, pp.21–43. Rubenstein (n.17 above); Sion (n.17 above). Catherine Lutz, 'Empire Is in the Details', American Ethnologist, Vol.33, No.4, 2006, pp.593–611. Clare Madge, 'Boundary Disputes: Comments on Sidaway', Area, Vol.25, No.3, 1993, p.296. Paul Higate and Marsha Henry, Insecure Spaces. Peacekeeping, Power and Performance in Haiti, Kosovo and Liberia, London: Zed Books, 2009. Cynthia Enloe, Globalization and Militarism; Feminists Make the Link, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007; Sandra Whitworth, Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004; Razack (n.16 above). Michael Pugh and Neil Cooper with Jonathan Goodhand, War Economies in a Regional Context: Challenges of Transformation, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004. Razack (n.16 above). Paris (n.16 above). Mark Duffield, Global Governance and the New Wars. The Merging of Development and Security, London: Zed Books, 2001; David Chandler, 'The Responsibility to Protect? Imposing the "Liberal Peace"', International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.1, 2004, pp.59–82; Michael Pugh, 'Peacekeeping and Critical Theory', in Alex Bellamy and Paul Williams (eds) The Politics of Peacekeeping, London: Routledge, 2004, pp.39–58. Laura Zanotti, 'Taming Chaos: A Foucauldian View of UN Peacekeeping, Democracy and Normalization', International Peacekeeping, Vol.13, No.2, 2006, pp.150–67. Efrat Elron, Nir Halevy, Eyal Ben-Ari and Shamir Boas, 'Cooperation and Coordination across Cultures in the Peacekeeping Forces: Individual and Organizational Integrating Mechanisms', in Thomas W. Britt and Amy B. Adler (eds), The Psychology of the Peacekeeper, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003, pp.261–82. Uma Kothari, 'Spatial Imaginaries and Practices: Experiences of Colonial Officers and Development Professionals', Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol.27, 2006, pp.235–53. A civilian peacekeeper revealed his grade and monthly salary amount with us during interviews in Liberia. With 'hazard pay' he earned about US$5000 a month but could spend no more than US$3000 however hard he tried. Rubinstein (n.17 above). Here the term 'black' refers to a politicized identity. Neil McKeganey and Michael Bloor, 'Spotting the Invisible Man: The Influence of Male Gender on Fieldwork Relations', British Journal of Sociology, Vol.42, No.2, 1991, pp.195–210; Lorna McKee and Margaret O'Brien, 'Interviewing Men: "Taking Gender Seriously"', in Eva Gamarnikow et al. (eds), The Public and the Private, London: Heinemann, 1983, pp.147–61; Chih Hoong Sin, 'Ethnic-Matching in Qualitative Research: Reversing the Gaze on "White Others" and "White" as "Other"', Qualitative Research, Vol.7, 2007, pp.477–99. Sandra Harding, 'Introduction', in Sandra Harding (ed.), Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987. This was partially based on a previous research strategy used by Paul and a former colleague (see Higate and Cameron n.19 above). By 'field' we refer simply to a social and physical site of research. For a detailed discussion of the concept of the field, see Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (eds), Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. An 'enclave' is a geographical and community area that has a distinctive culture and is differentiated from bordering areas. Carolyn Nordstrom suggests that 'runway anthropology' is a type of ethnography that can be conducted where landing strips exist and security clearances are possible. Nordstrom and Robben (n.18 above), p.140. Sanghera and Thapar-Björkert (n.13 above). Paul Higate and Marsha Henry, 'Engendering (In)security in Peace Support Operations', Security Dialogue, Vol.35, No.4, 2004, pp.481–98; Higate and Henry (n.23 above). Pierre Bourdieu, 'The Forms of Capital', in John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York: Greenwood, 1986, pp.241–58. It is important to note that none of these researchees would have identified themselves as 'white' or from the lighter-skinned elite sometimes referred to as 'Congo' people. See Stephen Ellis, 'Liberia 1989–1994: A Study of Ethnic and Spiritual Violence', African Affairs, Vol.94, 1995, pp.165–97. Ruth Frankenberg, White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993, p.1. Charles Gallagher, 'White Like Me? Methods, Meaning and Manipulation in the Field of White Studies', in France Winddance Twine and Jonathan Warren (eds), Race-ing Research, Researching Race: Methodological and Ethical Dilemmas in Field Research, New York: New York University Press, 2000, pp.67–92. Sin (see n. 35 above), p.480. Daniel Hoffman, 'Frontline Anthropology: Research in a Time of War', Anthropology Today, Vol.19, No.3, 2007, pp.9–12. Daphne Patai, 'U.S. Academics and Third "World" Women: Is Ethical Research Possible?', in Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphe Patai (eds), Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, New York: Routledge, 1991, pp.137–53; Lynn Staeheli and Victoria Lawson, 'Feminism and Praxis in Human Geography', Geographical Analysis, Vol.27, 1995, pp.321–38; Diane Wolf (ed.), Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Staeheli and Lawson (n.49 above), p.332. Henry (n.10 above). Note that South Asians have had a varied and lengthy presence in West Africa, along with other groups, including Lebanese and Chinese groups. The topic of sexual exploitation and abuse of local people by civilian and military peacekeeping personnel was continually raised and made Gurchathen's experience all the more politically relevant. See Paul Higate, Gender and Peacekeeping. Case Studies: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone, Pretoria: Institute for Strategic Studies, 2004; Higate and Henry (n.42 above). James Sidaway, 'In Other Worlds: On the Politics of Research by "First World" Geographers in the "Third World"', Area, Vol.24, No.4, 1992, p.406. Margaret Willson, 'Afterword: Perspective and Difference: Sexualization, the Field, and the Ethnographer', in Don Kulick and Willson (eds), Taboo: Sex, Identity and Erotic Subjectivity in Anthropological Fieldwork, London: Routledge, 1995, pp.251–63; Kari Lerum, 'Subjects of Desire: Academic Armor, Intimate Ethnography, and the Production of Critical Knowledge', Qualitative Inquiry, Vol.7, 2001, pp.466–83; Julia Cupples, 'The Field as a Landscape of Desire: Sex and Sexuality in Geographical Fieldwork', Area, Vol.34, No.4, 2002, pp.382–90. Marie Smyth, 'Insider Outsider Issues in Researching Violence and Divided Societies', in Elisabeth Porter, Gillian Robinson, Marie Smyth, Albrecht Schnabel and Eghosa Osaghae (eds), Researching Conflict in Africa: Insights and Experiences, Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005, p.17. On several occasions in Liberia Gurchathen was assumed to be Lebanese. Katherine Irwin, 'Into the Dark Heart of Ethnography: The Lived Ethics and Inequality of Intimate Field Relationships', Qualitative Sociology, Vol.29, 2006, p.160. Sarah Martin, 'Must Boys Be Boys? Ending Sexual Exploitation & Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Missions', Refugees International, 2005, accessed at www.refugeesinternational.org/sites/default/files/MustBoysbeBoys.pdf.; Asmita Naik, 'UN Investigation into Sexual Exploitation by Aid Workers: Justice Has Not Been Done', Forced Migration Review, Jan. 2003, accessed at www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR16/fmr16.15.pdf; Higate (n.53 above). Jayathi Lal, 'Situating Locations: The Politics of Self, Identity, and "Other" in Living and Writing the Text', in Diane Wolf (ed.), Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork, Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996, p.196. Smyth (n.56 above), p.17. Julia Chaitin, '"I Wish He Hadn't Told Me That": Methodological and Ethical Issues in Social Trauma and Conflict Research', Qualitative Health Research, Vol.13, 2003, p.1146. Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, London: Free Association, 1991, p.189. Nordstrom (n.13 above). Amy Best, 'Doing Race in the Context of Feminist Interviewing: Constructing Whiteness Through Talk', Qualitative Inquiry, Vol.9, 2003, p.909. James Clifford, 'Introduction', in Clifford and George Marcus (eds), Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986, p.17. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, 'The Primacy of the Ethical: Propositions for a Militant Anthropology', Current Anthropology, Vol.36, No.3, 1995, pp.409–20. Best (n.65 above), p.909.