CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGYshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/70084/7/07_chapter 3.pdf · CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ... information presented

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter attempts to explain three issues: (1) the ontological and

epistemological considerations essential for studying the research theme, (2) the

methodological approaches used when studying the subject at hand, and (3) the

potential biases and limitations of these approaches. But, before venturing into

those three main concerns, it will be appropriate to discuss a little about the

circumstances from which the research idea originated. This will help us

understand the underlying strength as well as the potential bias that may be

inherent in the overall approach to the research theme. The background

information presented in this chapter identifies and describes the history and

nature of the research problem with reference to the existing literature. It will

indicate the root of the problem being studied, its scope, and the extent to which

previous studies have investigated the problem so far highlighting the gaps that

still exist that the present study attempts to address. It places the research problem

in proper context rather than provide a thorough examining pertinent literature.

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3.1. PRE-UNDERSTANDING

The researcher’s pre-understanding of the post-conflict societies and

transitional justice stems from both his work experience in working in such

countries, states and communities across Asia and Africa and selective readings

of theory. His exposure to post-conflict reconstruction efforts, especially in the

area of nation development policies and poverty reduction oriented governance

strategies, while working on various assignments with the United Nations

agencies in countries like Cambodia (1999), Rwanda (2000-2001). Ethiopia

(2003-2006), Sierra Leone (2004-2005), Sudan (2005-2006) embellished this

pre-understanding that the global contexts of transitional justice may or may not

be a referral framework for peace-building nearer home (in Assam and Mizoram).

Starting with a reading of various prior peace agreements in India (TNV Accord,

Shillong Accord) and abroad (Oslo Accord, Dayton Accord, Philippines and

South African Peace Accords) and other works in this subject of transitional

justice gave the researcher an opportunity to reflect more systematically about the

constructive role and function of developing an alternative “indicators of success”

or a benchmarking model with a strong theoretical basis from Indian experiences

in peace-building through peace accords.

The researcher started with an initial idea to study why peace accords

signed by the same government apparently failed to deliver the expected results

in one state while it became a successful platform in another. But, when this

research proposal was being finalized, the actual research design for this study

was conceptualized by conducting some preparatory interviews, it was realized

that it needed a more complex comparative analysis of the locale specific

responses to truly examine the relationship between justice narrative, popular

perceptions, societal attitudes and responses to post-conflict peace-building

interventions.

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Since one of the major research questions formulated for this thesis is to

explore whether the prevailing concept of theories of transitional justice is

applicable in Indian context as seen from the two cases of Assam and Mizoram,

it started with some examples of transitional justice scenarios elsewhere in the

world. Further, the researcher’s practical experiences of working with UN

agencies in various countries naturally led to using the World Bank’s Post‐

Conflict Performance Indicators framework (PCPI) as a set of ‘global baseline’

criteria to assess a country’s performance and the same was used to examine

whether the same can be used as an ‘universal framework of reference’ to assesses

the quality of a provincial state’s policy and institutional framework to support a

successful transition and recovery from conflict and to foster sustainable growth

through collaborative efforts of the government and the civil society.

The content of the World Bank’s framework reflects the emerging

consensus that development challenges in post‐conflict and other fragile

situations require a deep understanding of the links among the security, political,

economic, and social spheres. Given the range and complexity of such relations,

some topics that are specific to the local societies under study, it is natural that

some issues might very well fall outside the Bank’s traditional development

mandate that need to be considered in the present thesis. In order to avoid this

limitation and potential bias towards UN frameworks disregarding other

indicators developed by non-UN organizations, the research design and

methodology adopted in the present work go beyond its core mandate to

incorporate local factors that contribute towards the effectiveness of its

interventions in areas at high risk of, or affected by, conflict.

The original PCPI framework was presented in Adapting IDA’s

Performance-Based Allocations to Post-Conflict Countries (IDA 2001). The

assessments are undertaken in an objective and impartial manner that do not entail

passing a political judgment on a state, its people or its government. When

preparing the interview schedules, the researcher consulted with members of the

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(former) parties in conflict, government officials and members of the civil society

in general to ensure that the present study covers all the relevant developments in

the state and also take into consideration the past studies of other international

agencies (ADB 2001, 2010, 2011 and 2012) that may have particular expertise in

areas that fall outside the Bank’s PCPI framework. This consultation process

helped strengthen the robustness of the present research design.

3.2. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY

The present study can be categorized as a combination of descriptive,

qualitative and analytical research. Hence, the methodology adopted for this

study included a combination of the Focused (Semi-structured) interviews,

descriptive research techniques and qualitative interpretations. Focused (Semi-

structured) Interviews technique was used to collect qualitative data by setting up

a situation (the interview) that allows a respondent the time and scope to talk

about their opinions on a particular subject. The objective is to understand the

respondent's point of view rather than make generalizations about behaviour.

There will be an open ended list of pre-decided questions and but the actual

interview may include questions that occur to the researcher during the interview.

This descriptive research perspective in the study presented the state of affairs as

it exists at present. It may also be called ‘ex-post facto research’ as the researcher

had no control over the variables and reported only what had happened or what

was happening. The analytical part of the study focused on an attempt by

researchers to discover causes even without control over the variables. Qualitative

analysis undertaken in this study was aimed at discovering the underlying issues

in social contexts from the data collected from respondents. The study also

involved a large amount of literature review collecting data from existing

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resources through both internal and external desk research techniques. Desk

research is very effective and can be conducted in starting phase of research as it

is quite quick and most of the basic information like official documents, data, and

literature review on the subject could be easily fetched which can be used as a

benchmark in the research progress.

The overall approach adopted in this study was qualitative approach to

research that was concerned with subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions and

behaviour. Research in such a situation was a function of researcher’s insights

and impressions. Such an approach to research generated results in mainly non-

quantitative form or in the form which were not subjected to rigorous quantitative

analysis though it does occasionally refer to the data in quantitative terms with

respect to a particular survey question. Generally, the techniques of focus group

interviews and in-depth interviews were used.

The research examined the post peace agreement scenarios of Assam and

Mizoram. The Assam Agitation (or Assam Movement) was a popular movement

against undocumented migrants in Assam between 1979 and 1985. The agitation

programme ended in 1985 following the Assam Accord that was signed between

the agitation leaders and the Government of India (See full text of the in Appendix

B). The Mizo Peace Accord, which was signed a year later than the Assam

Accord is a case in contrast (see full text in Appendix D). The research examined

the two cases through the lens of government and civil society efforts and

evaluated what worked and what did not. A descriptive methodology helped to

delineate commonalities and differences in experiences and in the adoption of a

success indicators framework. The research also used this detailed analysis to

map the reform and reconstruction process in each case.

A descriptive-qualitative framework was found appropriate for several

reasons. First, once a conflict has ended we have little systematic data on the

economic and political reform processes. Most economic data are outcome

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indicators that fail to provide sufficient insight into the effects of specific policies

and societal participation. No data bank provides systematic data on the timing

and sequencing of government interventions and civil society interactions. So,

the two peace agreements under the scanner provided important insights into the

policy issues. Second, these two agreements are distinctively different in their

pre-agreement scenarios and the lessons from divergent outcomes of the post

peace accord interventions in Assam and Mizoram presented a very good

opportunity to identify policies and conditions under which post-peace accord

transitional justice yield the desired results. Finally, as both the state belonged to

Northeast India (consisting of a total of eight states) the study also offered

sufficient insight into a regional context to the conflicts.

In each of the two agreements, the research was focused on the following

questions: what major components of western concept of transitional justice were

reflected in the states since the cessation of conflict? When were the various

reforms instituted? Were there any watershed events that made the transitional

justice possible or impossible? Who were the actors for bringing out a sense of

transitional justice and what were their roles, goals and motivations? What was

the role of government’s policies on accountability, justice (in terms of

rehabilitation of the victims of conflict)? What was the role of government on

policing and quelling violence, political mediation, and reforming erstwhile

militant groups?

Looking at whether the two peace accords met their objectives, the study

then assessed them using a multi-dimensional performance indicators matrix in

order to bring out a new approach and success indicators framework for peace

accords in post-conflict societies. This was done after comparing and contrasting

the case studies on the effectiveness of several policies, and several semi-

structured interviews with a cross section of stakeholders. Three types of

stakeholders were included in this study. The first category of interviewees were

the key government officials. The second category of interviewees included civil

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society organizations (their representatives). The third category of interviewees

included former members of the agitation groups who signed the peace accords

with the government.

The selection of the interviewees was based on whether they had a first-

hand experience on post peace accord interventions. By looking at the available

literature on themes a list of interviewees was compiled and their addresses were

tracked. With an oral consent protocol, the interviews were conducted with two

groups of thirty interviewees from each state. The participants were informed that

“the researcher will use the information for research purposes only and their

identity or any information that would identify them to anyone outside of the

study will not be disclosed without their permission, except as required by law.

As a general principle it was ensured to the interviewees that specific quotes

would not be attributed by their name or title.

Out of sixty interviewees, eighteen of them submitted their written

answers by email, twenty-four of them were interviewed by telephone, and the

rest were interviewed in-person. The Interviewees’ response were then tabulated

and analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Twenty percent of

the interviewees also participated in a series of follow-up interviews, which

helped the researcher to clarify some of the issues raised by them in the first stage.

However, it should be acknowledged that the comments provided by interviewees

are strictly in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect those of their

organizations or governments.

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3.3. RESEARCH DESIGN

As this study adopted a descriptive and contextual qualitative approach,

the research design reflected the elements of qualitative research that refers to

inductive, holistic, emic, and subjective. It is a systematic, subjective approach

used to describe life experiences and give them meaning (Day 1993, Erlandson,

Harris, Skipper and Allen 1993, Feyerabend 1993). Qualitative research was

mostly associated with words, language and experiences rather than

measurements, statistics and numerical figures. There were three stages in the

research design developed for this study.

The conceptual stage covered the formulation of the research question, the

objectives and the purpose of the study. Then a literature review was done to

become familiar with the content of the literature. The second stage involved the

research design and planning of the study. The third stage was the empirical part

of a research study and involved the actual data collection, analysis and

interpretation of data. The data collection was conducted through semi-structured

interview the participants was accompanied by notes were made during the

interview.

Data collection and analysis were carried out in two phases. The first phase

started after the first series of interviews and in the second phase the interviewees

were contacted again for more qualitative input bases on some specific issues that

came up during the first phase analysis. During the data interpretation, analysis

and discussion the researcher used an exploratory, descriptive and contextual

qualitative research design. Burns and Grove (2003) define exploratory research

as research conducted to gain new insights and discover new ideas. A descriptive

approach in data collection in qualitative research gives the ability to collect

accurate data on and provide a clear picture of the phenomenon under study

(Mouton and Marais 1996). In the present study, the descriptive approach was

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particularly appropriate because an authentic description was required of the

experiences of the respondents.

Data gathering is the precise, systematic gathering of information relevant

to the research sub-problems, using methods such as interviews (Burns and Grove

2003). The data collection was reflective to give the participants the opportunity

to reflectively express their experience. In this study the collection of raw data

from participants took place in one stage. Interviewing refers to the semi-

structured verbal communication between the researcher and the participants

(respondents), in which information is presented to the researcher. The open or

semi-unstructured interviewing was considered the main method of data

collection in this research as it provided a situation where the participants’

descriptions can be explored, illuminated and gently probed (Kvale 1996).

De Vos (2002) observed that the aim of the semi-structured interview was

“to actively enter the world of people and to render those worlds understandable

from the standpoint of a theory that is grounded in behaviours, languages,

definitions, attitudes and feelings of those studied”. This approach reflects the

open and accepting style of interviewing that seeks to elicit the genuine views

and feelings of participants. During the researcher took reasonable caution to

prevent the participants from feeling that they are being “cross-examined” on a

topic (Burns and Grove 2003).

Interviews were usually initiated with a broad or general question. After

the interview had begun, the role of the researcher was to encourage the

participants to continue talking, using techniques such as nodding the head or

making sounds that indicate interest. In some cases, the participants were slightly

encouraged to elaborate further on a particular dimension of a topic of discussion

(Burns and Grove 2003) by using probes. The open-ended questions did not need

a one-word answer but provide interviewees with ample opportunity to express

their feelings (De Vos 2002) and allow participants to respond in their own words.

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3.4. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The researcher had a moral obligation to strictly consider the rights of the

participants who were expected to provide input to the study. Hence, the

researcher considered it very important to establish trust between the participants

and himself and to respect them as autonomous beings, thus enabling them to

make sound decisions (Burns and Grove 2003). The social researcher’s

responsibility to protect the human rights of study participants is universally

prescribed in ethics codes and guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki.9 In

addition, the collection of accurate data depends upon the cooperation of

respondents: individuals are more likely to agree to participate in a study and to

give complete, accurate information if they feel that they can trust the research

organization. Finally, a positive experience with regard to the research interaction

encourages participation in future research.

Ethical considerations were an important aspect in this study; due to the

sensitive nature of the study, possible risks were continuously examined to

increase sensitivity to the participants and not to expose them. Ethical measures

are as important in qualitative research as in quantitative research and include

ethical conduct towards participant’s information as well as honest reporting of

the results. The ethical measures in this study include consent, confidentiality and

anonymity, privacy, dissemination of results and the right to withdraw from the

study.

9 World Medical Association (WMA). (1964). Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for

medical research involving human subjects (adopted amended 29th WMA General Assembly,

Tokyo, Japan, October 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964; 1975; 35th

WMA General Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983; 41st WMA General Assembly, Hong

Kong, September 1989; 48th WMA General Assembly, Somerset West, Republic of South

Africa, October 1996; and 52nd WMA General Assembly, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2000.

Available at: http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/helsinki.html

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3.5. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study encountered some limitations in terms of scope, operational and

ethical challenges. In terms of scope, this study does not examine all types of

intervention failures. Rather, it focuses on those cases of major expectations

mismatch with respect to the declared objectives or terms of the peace

agreements. Further, in case studies, especially in case of Assam, all cases of

violence that occurred prior to the signing of peace accord were not covered.

Rather, two major cases - Nellie Massacre (1983) and Bombing of Mizoram

(1966) were primarily referred to in the present study.

Another challenge faced by the researcher was not being able to

understand the spoken language of Mizoram or to understand fully the cross-

cultural nuances and symbols of the people interviewed. It may represent,

however small, a limitation on the interpretation of the interviews. Lack of

cultural understanding often prevents a researcher to make legitimate claims

about the underlying meaning of what an informants tells. Absence of a cross-

cultural analysis of key-terms of transitional justice used in the interview would

have been helpful. However, that would have been a complex and time-

consuming task beyond the stipulated period allowed for a doctoral research. In

spite of these limitations, the validity of the present research emanates from the

fact that it used a general conceptual framework to find out something new about

the phenomenon studied.