I am recently working on my dissertation project dealing with the current Romanian protest movements. I plan two steps within my research that should include to an as high as possible degree activists of that movement: firstly, I want to provide a political grouping of activists, that should follow the activists own identical perceptions instead of a theoretically anticipated framework. Secondly, I want to realize qualitative interviews with some activists regarding their political attitude and motivations for protest. I know that in archaeology and ethnology there exist research approaches designed to collaborate with local communities (community archaeology, critical heritage studies). Does anybody know such approaches that could be or already are used for politological research? Or does there already exist something like community politology I overlooked in my research so far?
Hi Nina!
I touched upon Social Movement Theory in my current Master project with regard to radicalization, but some indeed use the framing or leadership theory to underpin the causes for such group dynamics.
Some authors (I'm not sure if they are all political scientiests though) are: Wiktorowicz, Sageman, Bakker, Neumann or a study by the Change Institute from 2008.
Dalgaard-Nielsen provides quite a good summary on Social Movement theories (among others) with regard to radicalisation, but it would fit in the realm of protest movements as well.
Dalgaard-Nielsen, A. (2010). Violent radicalization in Europe: What we know and what we do not know. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 33(9), 797-814.
Good luck, I hope that helped a bit.
Best,
Alina
From a Rhetorical standpoint I can think of several methodologies that might prove useful to you depending of course on the purpose of your project.
1. https://socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualapp.php is a link to check out Ethnography and Phenomenology.
2. Grounded theory if you are trying to isolate one theme or concept in your group- http://www.groundedtheoryonline.com/what-is-grounded-theory/
3. if you want to look at how the organization functions (or doesn't function) then there is Activity Theory- http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1405&context=buspapers
I hope some of this was helpful.
Thank you for that, think it`s going to be useful for actual interview situations.
If anyone`s still interested: I got deeper into that and found the following:
Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine/ Yanow, Dvora (2012): Interpretive Research Design. Concepts and Processes, Routledge, New York.
Within Political Sciences, interpretive research designs seems not to be so commonly used yet, while I think reflecting on one`s ontological presuppositions in the beginning of a new project could be a very interesting aspect in politological works. I will try to adapt to that approach, critically questioning positivist presuppositions about theories and facts. In an interpretive approach, investigation is not so much about testing hypotheses, having general or determinate findings in the end, but about explaining human agency in context and about processes of meaning-making, having in mind the contingency of "reality". I think asking about political meaning-making and about political action from that perspective could help making sense of at the moment seemingly chaotic events. I can`t wait learning about the current Romanian protests in that context!
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