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To do quality research, many social scientists must travel to
far-flung parts of the world and spend long stretches of time
living in places they find unfamiliar and uncomfortable. No matter
how prepared researchers think they are, everyone encounters
unexpected challenges in the course of their work in the field. In
Doing Global Fieldwork, the political scientist Jesse Driscoll
offers a how-to guide for social scientists who are considering
extended mixed-methods international fieldwork. He details the
major steps in fieldwork planning and execution, from creating a
plan, to what happens when political conditions throw up obstacles
to research, to distilling and writing up research findings upon
return. Driscoll emphasizes the ability to improvise and adapt
because in the field, ideas will shift, plans will change, and
something will inevitably go wrong. He offers a practical overview
of the types of psychological and physical preparation,
professionalization, and self-presentation that social scientists
conducting research abroad need to prioritize. Driscoll describes
the challenges that arise when working in difficult settings, such
as war zones, areas of contested sovereignty, and volatile
nondemocratic states. He explores the practical and ethical
considerations for data collection in these unique situations,
including whether and how much to reveal about one's research and
common psychological harms associated with fieldwork. Doing Global
Fieldwork is an up-to-date methodological guide for graduate
students and social science researchers of all stripes who need
blunt, no-nonsense advice about how to make the best of their time
in the field.
To do quality research, many social scientists must travel to
far-flung parts of the world and spend long stretches of time
living in places they find unfamiliar and uncomfortable. No matter
how prepared researchers think they are, everyone encounters
unexpected challenges in the course of their work in the field. In
Doing Global Fieldwork, the political scientist Jesse Driscoll
offers a how-to guide for social scientists who are considering
extended mixed-methods international fieldwork. He details the
major steps in fieldwork planning and execution, from creating a
plan, to what happens when political conditions throw up obstacles
to research, to distilling and writing up research findings upon
return. Driscoll emphasizes the ability to improvise and adapt
because in the field, ideas will shift, plans will change, and
something will inevitably go wrong. He offers a practical overview
of the types of psychological and physical preparation,
professionalization, and self-presentation that social scientists
conducting research abroad need to prioritize. Driscoll describes
the challenges that arise when working in difficult settings, such
as war zones, areas of contested sovereignty, and volatile
nondemocratic states. He explores the practical and ethical
considerations for data collection in these unique situations,
including whether and how much to reveal about one's research and
common psychological harms associated with fieldwork. Doing Global
Fieldwork is an up-to-date methodological guide for graduate
students and social science researchers of all stripes who need
blunt, no-nonsense advice about how to make the best of their time
in the field.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has its roots in the events
of 2013-2014. Russia cynically termed the seditionist conflict in
Crimea and Eastern Donbas a 'civil war' in order to claim
non-involvement. This flies in the face of evidence, but the
authors argue that the social science literature on civil wars can
be used help understand why no political solution was found between
2015 and 2022. The book explains how Russia, after seizing Crimea,
was reacting to events it could not control and sent troops only to
areas of Ukraine where it knew it would face little resistance
(Eastern Donbas). Kremlin decisionmakers misunderstood the
attachment of the Russian-speaking population to the Ukrainian
state and also failed to anticipate that their intervention would
transform Ukraine into a more cohesively 'Ukrainian' polity.
Drawing on Ukrainian documentary sources, this concise book
explains these important developments to a non-specialist
readership.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has its roots in the events
of 2013-2014. Russia cynically termed the seditionist conflict in
Crimea and Eastern Donbas a 'civil war' in order to claim
non-involvement. This flies in the face of evidence, but the
authors argue that the social science literature on civil wars can
be used help understand why no political solution was found between
2015 and 2022. The book explains how Russia, after seizing Crimea,
was reacting to events it could not control and sent troops only to
areas of Ukraine where it knew it would face little resistance
(Eastern Donbas). Kremlin decisionmakers misunderstood the
attachment of the Russian-speaking population to the Ukrainian
state and also failed to anticipate that their intervention would
transform Ukraine into a more cohesively 'Ukrainian' polity.
Drawing on Ukrainian documentary sources, this concise book
explains these important developments to a non-specialist
readership.
The southernmost and poorest state of the Eurasian space,
Tajikistan collapsed immediately upon the fall of the Soviet Union
and plunged into a bloody five-year civil war (1992-1997) that left
more than 50,000 people dead and more than half a million
displaced. After the 1997 Peace Agreements, Tajikistan stood out
for being the only post-Soviet country to recognize an Islamic
party-the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT)-as a key
actor in the civil war as well as in postwar reconstruction and
democratization. Tajikistan's linguistic and cultural proximity to
Iran notwithstanding, the balance of external powers over the
country remains fairly typical of Central Asia, with Russia as the
major security provider and China as its principal investor.
Another specificity of Tajikistan is its massive labor migration
flows toward Russia. Out of a population of eight million, about
one million work abroad seasonally-one of the highest rates of
departure in the world. Migration trends have impacted Tajikistan's
economy and rent mechanisms: half of the country's GDP comes from
migrant remittances, a higher share than anywhere else in the
world. However, it is in the societal and cultural realms that
migration has had the most transformative effect. Migrants'
cultural and societal identities are on the move, with a growing
role given to Islam as a normative tool for regulating the cultural
shock of migration. Islam, and especially a globalized
fundamentalist pietist movement, regulates both physical and moral
security in workplace and other settings, and brings migrants
together to make their interactions meaningful and
socio-politically relevant. It offers a new social prestige to
those who work in an environment seen as threatening to their
Islamic identity. The first section of this volume investigates the
critical question of the nature of the Tajik political regime, its
stability, legitimacy mechanisms, and patterns of centralization.
In the volume's second part, we move away from studying the state
to delve into the societal fabric of Tajikistan, shaped by local
rural specificities and social vulnerabilities in the health sector
and gender relationships. The third section of the volume is
devoted to identity narratives and changes. While the Tajik regime
works hard to control the national narrative and the interpretation
of the civil war, society is literally and figuratively on the
move, as migration profoundly reshapes societal structures and
cultural values.
The break-up of the USSR was unexpected and unexpectedly peaceful.
Though a third of the new states fell prey to violent civil
conflict, anarchy on the post-Soviet periphery, when it occurred,
was quickly cauterized. This book argues that this outcome had
nothing to do with security guarantees by Russia or the United
Nations and everything to do with local innovation by ruthless
warlords, who competed and colluded in a high-risk coalition
formation game. Drawing on a structured comparison of Georgian and
Tajik militia members, the book combines rich comparative data with
formal modeling, treating the post-Soviet space as an extraordinary
laboratory to observe the limits of great powers' efforts to shape
domestic institutions in weak states.
The break-up of the USSR was unexpected and unexpectedly peaceful.
Though a third of the new states fell prey to violent civil
conflict, anarchy on the post-Soviet periphery, when it occurred,
was quickly cauterized. This book argues that this outcome had
nothing to do with security guarantees by Russia or the United
Nations and everything to do with local innovation by ruthless
warlords, who competed and colluded in a high-risk coalition
formation game. Drawing on a structured comparison of Georgian and
Tajik militia members, the book combines rich comparative data with
formal modeling, treating the post-Soviet space as an extraordinary
laboratory to observe the limits of great powers' efforts to shape
domestic institutions in weak states.
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