Researching Violence, Democracy and the Rights of People

Description

Violence, democracy and rights are issues that are not fully addressed in research methodology literatures, yet violence is of vital interest in substantive and theoretical debates across the social sciences, education, philosophy, politics and cultural studies. Methodology needs to be informed by, and be relevant to, the debates and practices within and across these perspectives on the worlds of everyday life. Research is fundamentally entwined with the political, the ethical and the legal. When it presumes the neutrality of method and ignores its radical roots of inquiry, it is in danger of being politically co-opted and ethically naive. Research that reveals what is at stake politically, ethically and legally is typically open to accusations of being partisan and therefore political. It cannot avoid being political in the broadest sense of the word, and consequently the researcher cannot escape - through some mystical notion of being 'objective' - the political, ethical and legal consequences of undertaking research. Research is vital to the construction of public spaces for debate, decision making and action. Hence, there is a close relationship between methodological practices, research design and the conditions under which violence, democracy and rights can be addressed. Researching Violence, Democracy and the Rights of People explores what is at stake methodologically (both theoretically and practically) for researchers seeking to expand opportunities for people to become visible upon the public stages of debate, decision making and action, and thus make audible their experiences of wrongs and injustices, express their rights, and engage democratically in processes of change. Drawing on international contributions and contexts, this book introduces readers to the complex realities of real research and the substantive issues that their methodological approaches strive to deal with. It will benefit undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as post-doctoral and experienced researchers across a range of cultural and social science disciplines, as well as educational and sociological researchers. Its aim is to explore and contribute to the development of innovatory approaches to engaging in research that make a difference in the lives of people. Book Cover Title Copyright Contents Editors Contributors Introduction Part A Design, values, violence and rights Chapter 1 Values, violence and rights Part B Research accounts Introduction to Part B Chapter 2 Rethinking justice in education and training Chapter 3 Between justice and pathologization: Juxtapositions of epistemic and material violence in transnational migration and domestic violence research Methodological discussion section i: Values, justice, knowledge and identity Chapter 4 The scarf unveiled: Proximity to the test of law in a French school Chapter 5 Social research and ‘race’: Developing a critical paradigm Chapter 6 Violence, social exclusion and construction of identities in early childhood education Methodological discussion section ii: Resisting identities and boundaries Chapter 7 ‘(Don’t) change the subject. You did it’: Media and schooling as violence Chapter 8 ‘Charlie why ya hideing’: The role of myth and emotion in the lives of young people living in a high crime area Chapter 9 Passionate places and fragmented spaces Chapter 10 The return of the repressed Methodological discussion section iii: Places – visible, invisible and their ‘dis/contents’ Chapter 11 Manufacturing fear: The violence of anti-politics Chapter 12 Militarizing higher education: Resisting the pedagogy of violence Methodological discussion section iv: The language of critical resistance, emancipatory practices, and the co-option of research by Power Part C Framing the design and writing up Chapter 13 Writing for emancipatory research Critical conclusions for new beginnings Notes Index