A methodological note on quantitative field research in conflict zones: get your hands dirty

Abstract

Research in areas affected by armed conflict presents many challenges beyond those normally encountered by social scientists. This enhanced complexity has resulted in the conventional academic view that serious quantitative field research has to wait until the fighting stops. Those studies that were conducted in a conflict area fail to discuss how insecurity affects the methodological side of the research process. In this article, the authors argue that valid and reliable quantitative fieldwork is possible even in the most dangerous contexts, but it requires some methodological flexibility. In discussing this flexibility, the authors devote attention to two major components of quantitative survey research: the sampling process and the data collection. In doing so, this article focuses in particular on face-to-face interviews as the mode of data collection.