Theorizing Risk and Research: Methodological Constraints and Their Consequences

Conflict, postconflict settings, and other risky research sites are important with wide-ranging policy implications. Microlevel, field-based research lends critical insights to how conflicts work and the mechanisms behind macrolevel correlations that underpin quantitative political science. This article identifies how the risks associated with conflict and postconflict contexts influence researchers’ choices by theorizing the existence of distinct adaptive strategies. Specifically, researchers facing elevated risk generally manage it through three main strategies: outsourcing risk, avoiding risk, and internalizing risk. We argue that these strategies systematically shape and circumscribe outputs. We conclude by discussing how the relationship between risky fieldwork and what we know about conflict is poorly acknowledged. Thinking about how we manage risk should play a larger role in both our preparation for and interpretation of research, particularly in conflict and postconflict contexts

Remote (Dis)engagement: Shifting Corporate Risk to the 'Bottom of the Pyramid'

Untapped markets are often deemed institutional voids, terra incognita ripe with economic possibility. The conversion of institutional voids into viable markets has become the ambition of many corporations today, which view marginal and under-served areas such as urban slums as opportunities to achieve the dual aims of market growth and poverty reduction, particularly through ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP) programmes. This article examines how firms manage institutional voids and the consequences of these approaches for workers through a case study of a BoP ‘route to market’ programme designed by a global food manufacturer in Kibera, Africa's largest slum, located in Nairobi. Instead of engaging with Kibera by upgrading informal markets or generating formal employment, the corporation focused on harnessing existing informal systems through composite arrangements of NGOs, social networks and informal enterprises, a strategy the authors term ‘remote (dis)engagement’. The article describes the logics and outcome of this strategy of formal engagement with informal markets, concluding that the BoP business model depends on ‘gig practices’ of flexibility, irregular work and insecurity to realize the much-heralded ‘fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’

Encountering Resistance: Qualitative Insights from the Quantitative Sampling of Ex-Combatants in Timor-Leste

This article highlights the contribution of randomized, quantitative sampling techniques to answering qualitative questions posed by the study. In short it asks: what qualitative insights do we derive from quantitative sampling processes? Rather than simply being a means to an end, I argue the sampling process itself generated data. More specifically, seeking out more than 220 geographically dispersed individuals, selected though a randomized cluster sample, resulted in the identification of relationship patterns, highlighted extant resistance-era hierarchies and patronage networks, as well as necessitated deeper, critical engagement with the sampling framework. While this discussion is focused on the study of former resistance members in Timor-Leste, these methodological insights are broadly relevant to researchers using mixed methods to study former combatants or other networked social movements

The new local: Reappraising peacebuilding from the grassroots

Recent scholarship on civil war has identified that conflict is waged on multiple levels. What if we thought about building peace in a similar, multilevel way? This article reviews three recent additions to the literature on peacebuilding and argues that, in distinguishing between local and national conflict dynamics, they mark a useful departure from the dominant treatment of the local in relation to “top-down” peacebuilding. Particular attention is paid to Odendaal’s thoughtful work on local peace committees and Anderson and Wallace’s compelling survey of communities that chose to “opt out” of war. By exploring situations of disjuncture, in which there is consensus for peace on either the local or national level but not both, these authors emphasize the importance of creating cross-level linkages. They also underscore the distinctive capability for peacebuilding, yet also violence and instability, that resides in the local level

Street Level Bureaucrats and Post-conflict Policy-making: Corruption, Correctives, and the Rise of Veterans’ Pensions in Timor-Leste

Much has been made of the ‘imperial’ influence of international actors (Chopra 2000) and their view of Timor-Leste as a petri dish for post-conflict development. However, this view obscures the ways in which conflict-era actors and their networks shape core decision regarding resource allocation. This article examines the political economies of resistance-era networks in the post-conflict period, focusing specifically on the large-scale pensions programme. The article argues that these former fighters tasked with registration verification serve as ‘street level bureaucrats’ and have re-shaped the programme to reflect their views of the conflict and interests. This is not a trivial matter–in 2015 the programme consumed 9 per cent of the national budget–and this work suggests that pensions should be viewed as a core aspect of post-conflict economic development in Timor-Leste and, more broadly, that the role of conflict actors in defining such programmes is essential to understanding redistributive policies after conflict

Beagle 2: Mission to Mars — current status

Beagle 2, developed in the UK, was launched on June 2, 2003. It landed on Mars on December 25th, 2003 in Isidis Planitia, a large sedimentary basin. To date, the team is awaiting signals from the Beagle 2 lander. Current status of the mission will be reported