Fieldwork ‘headaches’. comparing feminist peace and conflict research in Kosovo and the DRC

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect upon the principal difficulties, challenges or ‘headaches’ that doing feminist research in conflict and post-conflict contexts can involve. Each of the authors has conducted a very different study. One, on the role of local women’s organizations and activists in peacebuilding; the other, on the disarma- ment and reintegration of combatants and the impact of this process on the repro- duction of violence. While one of us is a woman, the other is a man. While one studies feminist activism, the other focuses mainly on masculinities in the milit- ary. While one has researched in Kosovo, the other has done so in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based on these two research processes, we reflect on de- bates over epistemological and practical issues such as reflexivity, positionality of the researcher, access, secrecy and silence in the research process, power relations in the field and ethical dilemmas