Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Doing research on ‘sensitive topics’: Studying the Sweden–South Africa Arms Deal
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Divison of Law, Economics, Statistics and Politics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2808-183X
2020 (English)In: Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol. 48, no 2, p. 65-85Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The conventional arms trade is a sensitive topic that is often shrouded in secrecy. As with most aspects of so-called ‘high politics’, processes connected to conventional arms trade habitually take place behind closed doors between a relatively small and tightly knit group of individuals. Gaining access to such people is an enormous challenge for any researcher. Moreover, building rapport with key decision-makers takes a long time, and it requires considerable effort and resolve. This article recapitulates the approach and method of a study done on conventional Swedish arms trade with South Africa. It provides insights into several substantive issues related to such research, in particular, aspects connected to elite interviewing and research ethics. The bulk of the article covers matters related to research design, access to elites, the limitations associated with elite interviewing, and the interview process that was adopted during fieldwork.  The discussion on research ethics is closely, but not exclusively, connected to elite interviewing, and here the article reflects on various ethical considerations as well as the harsh reality of researching sensitive topics, such as conventional arms trade. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stellenbosch University , 2020. Vol. 48, no 2, p. 65-85
Keywords [en]
arms trade, foreign policy, sensitive topics, elite interviewing, Sweden, South Africa
National Category
Globalisation Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-16258DOI: 10.5787/48-2-1278OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-16258DiVA, id: diva2:1521082
Available from: 2021-01-22 Created: 2021-01-22 Last updated: 2021-01-25Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

WS_Coetzee_2020_Researching_Sensitive_Topics(364 kB)165 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 364 kBChecksum SHA-512
8b7d50605f80e60fb58e91ca2977513ff2fe648252fd8fc6221e8ee0c3fc4119587ddb09dbde8cc91a05d0b57c1c2f3dd70065275c2a79ff4801a55df140b048
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full text

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Coetzee, Wayne Stephen
By organisation
Divison of Law, Economics, Statistics and Politics
Globalisation Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 166 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 193 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf