A new PhD course entitled Fieldwork methodology: approaches, tools and ethics will be offered 11-13 October 2011 at PRIO, within the Research School on Peace and Conflict. The course is taught by senior researchers Jørgen Carling and Cindy Horst and draws upon PRIO's ambitions to develop and promote competence on fieldwork-based research. Application deadline: 11 September 2011.
Fieldwork methodology: approaches, tools and ethics prepares participants for conducting fieldwork and using fieldwork data in social-science research. By ‘fieldwork’ we mean data collection through face-to-face interaction with people in their daily lives, using participant observation, interviews, or a combination of the two. The course pays particular attention to the challenges of doing fieldwork in difficult circumstances, such as those that are often encountered in research on peace and conflict. The sessions roughly follow the chronology from pre-fieldwork planning to post-fieldwork representation of data, and address both practical and principle concerns at each stage. Discussions of ethical challenges are integrated throughout. Rather than attempting to provide blueprint answers, the course seeks to help participants reflect upon the dilemmas and challenges of fieldwork and make informed decisions for their own research.
See the course description for additional details on content and admission