Studying Insecurity from Relative Safety — Dealing with Methodological Blind Spots

The labels 'state fragility' and 'civil war' suggest that security within several African countries has broken down. As Tim Glawion observes, however, while people do experience insecurity in some parts of conflict-affected countries, in other areas they live in relative security.

Organiser: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Dr. Tim Glawion (Consultant)

Examinations of substate politics are mostly limited to single-case studies or statistical analyses. Seldom are qualitative methods applied with a comparative aim in mind that can unveil patterns of political ordering on the local level. In this GIGA session we discuss how to gather comparable data across field sites and how to compare them analytically. The lecturer will provide examples from his comparative studies on local security arenas in the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Haiti. Students are encouraged to share their own experiences and plans during class.

Studying 12 cases across the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somaliland, and South Sudan, I investigate (1) where hybrid interactions take place, (2) how they happen and (3) what this means for people’s security.

The labels 'state fragility' and 'civil war' suggest that security within several African countries has broken down. As Tim Glawion observes, however, while people do experience insecurity in some parts of conflict-affected countries, in other areas they live in relative security.

Organiser: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Dr. Tim Glawion (Consultant)

Examinations of substate politics are mostly limited to single-case studies or statistical analyses. Seldom are qualitative methods applied with a comparative aim in mind that can unveil patterns of political ordering on the local level. In this GIGA session we discuss how to gather comparable data across field sites and how to compare them analytically. The lecturer will provide examples from his comparative studies on local security arenas in the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Haiti. Students are encouraged to share their own experiences and plans during class.