Field trips

Heidrun Åm: England (March-June 2009), Germany (October-December 2009)
My dissertation is based on the analysis of the nanotechnology governance of two country cases: the UK and Germany. In the year 2009, I conducted ca. 25 interviews in these countries. Both times, I had the pleasure that I was offered institutional affiliation during the time I spent abroad.
From March to June 2009, I stayed at the Department of Local Government of the University of Birmingham. Apart from an office place at a classical, lovely British campus, my stay was enriched by the committed supervision by Dr. Steven Griggs. His research focus is on understanding policy processes and changing governance modes and he is an expert in political discourse theory. Dr. Griggs helped me to make considerable process in the conceptualisation of my study, in the analysis and writing up of interview material, as well as in situating nanotechnology politics within the wider context of British politics. Regarding my research, the interview appointments led me several times to London, as well as to Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Durham. I did not only talk to civil servants, scientists in advisory councils or colleagues within the field of nanotechnology ELSA research, but as well to parliamentarians in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
In autumn, I spent 2,5 months at the nanoOffice of the Department of Philosophy at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The research group led by Prof. Alfred Nordmann conducted several important studies about ethical and social challenges through emerging nanotechnologies and about nanotechnology regulation. Apart from feedback on my research process, I got important help in finding interview partners and background information on nanotechnology governance in Germany. Starting from Darmstadt, my interview journeys went to Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe and Berlin.

Martina Ciganikova: Uganda (July-October 2007), Slovakia (July-October2008), Ghana (March-July 2009)
For the course of my PhD thesis I conducted qualitative field research in all three countries of interest: two research stays in Uganda were accomplished in July-October 2007 and February 2008 subsequently, followed by a research stay in Slovakia in July – October 2008 and completing the research period in Ghana from March to July to 2009. During the field research stays expert interviews with various stakeholders of the democratization process conducted at the national level supplemented the information gathered from relevant organizations, research centres and secondary literature. The field stays proved to be of inevitable importance for my thesis as the conducted qualitative interviews offered invaluable insights into work, performance, tactics and strategic choices of the analyzed oppositional forces.

Petru Culeac: Republic of Moldova (January - June 2009)
In order to gather data for empirical part of the doctoral research I conducted a five moth research field trip to Republic of Moldova. The goal of the field trip was to conduct qualitative interviews with members of Moldovan political parties, experts in the field of elections, democratization and Moldovan politics, as well as with representatives of local NGOs dealing with elections and democratization process. During the field trip I collaborated with the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections – Coalition 2009, European Institute for Political Studies Moldova, Eurasia Foundation Moldova, NDI and other, to facilitate meetings and interviews with political party representatives and experts. While being in Republic of Moldova I acted as a National Observer in two rounds of Parliamentary Elections, thus having the chance to closely observe the electoral behavior of both voters as well as political contestants during the respective campaigns. The collaboration with the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections - Coalition 2009 proved to be extremely useful since this helped accumulate important research material regarding the development and functioning of the a governance networks in Republic of Moldova.

Julius Lambi: Cameroon (August-September 2008; April-July 2009)
Before the start of my empirical research on the extent to which associations in Cameroon contribute to democratization, I first carried out a one-month pilot fieldwork. The main achievement of the pilot study was the identification of key research contacts, such as, the North West Association of Development Organizations (NWADO). During the actual data collection field trip which lasted for four months, I worked as a volunteer for NWADO and used its rich database to get in touch with other associations in the case study region. My affiliation with NWADO also helped me gain acceptance and trust among members of civil society organizations. I conducted 28 interviews with members of associations as well as government officials, and administered questionnaires to 100 development associations. My field research took me to all the seven divisions of the NW region of Cameroon and it proved to be a far greater learning experience than I had anticipated. By the end of the four-month period, I had experienced many ‘eu reka’ moments.

Olga Narbutovich: Lithuania (summer and fall 2009)
My field work on the first country case was conducted in Lithuania in summer and fall 2009.  During my research stay I lived in the capital city of Vilnius, from which I further travelled to local towns and communities in order to meet with my interviewees. They represented very different groups of stakeholders and expressed quite a diversity of positions and opinions, which confirmed my initial observation of how interested the Lithuanians actually are in the issues of nuclear energy in their country. My informants at the national level were representatives of the Radioactive Waste Management Agency (RATA), the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI), as well as members of research and science institutes. Apart from that, I also focused on talking with civil society activists who offered enlightening perspectives on my research questions. At the local level I met with members of the municipality administration of the town of Visaginas, local self-government, green NGOs, and personnel of the Ignalina nuclear power plant currently under decommissioning.

Bert Preiss: Kosovo (February-April 2009), Northern Ireland (June-August 2009)
I stayed in Kosovo from February to April 2009 and in Northern Ireland from June to August 2009, where I carried out my Ph.D. field research. Both stays proved to be very successful, as they provided me with many insights into the nature of community divisions and the actual issues at stake. The staff members of my host organisations in Kosovo – Spark Pristina and the Human Rights Center of the University of Pristina – and in Northern Ireland – the Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast – were very helpful in providing me with guidance, advice and expertise and in facilitating contacts to interview partners and access to libraries and archives. Several other people assisted me in the conduct of my field research – be it through making their contacts to local people available to me, through introducing me to the local customs and environment or – in the Kosovo case - through interpreting the interviews carried out in Serbian and Albanian. In the end it was them who ensured that my field research stays in Kosovo and Northern Ireland were both invaluable and pleasurable.

Veronika Schwediauer: England (January-June 2009)
I was at the London School of Economics and Political Science from January to June 2009. The experience was crucial to me. The LSE is one of the most important universities in Europe as concerns political science. Hence, visiting lectures, courses and doctoral seminars was very interesting. Not only because leading figures of political science are located there, but also because of the exchange with the LSE-students itself. Moreover, my supervisor there was Professor Anne Phillips who is a luminary in my research field women and politics and her insights helped me in the advancement of my PhD.

Erwin Schweitzer: South Africa (February-August 2009)
Due to the lack of existing data, theoretical considerations and the political sensitivity of my research topic, indigenous collective action for land, explorative qualitative research appeared to be the only feasible research strategy. Thus, I conducted six months of ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa from February until August 2009. During this period of time I scrutinised land reform cases in which indigenous claimant communities and indigenous organisations were involved. In the course of the field research I employed a variety of ethnographic techniques. The method of participant observation was used to study everyday practices in settings such as community meetings, church functions, and indigenous organisations’ offices. Furthermore, I stayed lengthy periods with families in the respective indigenous communities. Semi-structured and open interviews were conducted with indigenous leaders, community members, NGO workers, government officials, and academics.

Violeda Umali: Philippines (August-September 2008; April-August 2009)
My trips to the Philippines were basically spent doing field research for my dissertation. Specifically, I conducted key informant interviews with stakeholders for and against the population and reproductive health legislative proposals,collated various documents pertaining to the legislative proposals as well as other relevant materials, and generally immersed myself in the ongoing debates on population and reproductive health. On the side, I also did data gathering for upcoming conference paper presentations,and participated in a few academic events in and outside the country.
My key informants for my dissertation research came from the government,‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ groups/NGOs, academe, and media. I interviewed both national- and local-level stakeholders; for the latter, I took three trips outside Metro Manila. Since there is a very active advocacy for and against the population/RH legislative proposals, I was able to access a lot of materials about the debates going on, particularly media reports, position papers of stakeholders, and other advocacy materials these stakeholders have prepared. More importantly, Congress archives all proceedings of committee-level and floor deliberations on all legislative proposals, which give me a very good idea about what the dynamics were in main debate arena.

Qu Wang: China (March-May, August-September, November-December 2009)
In order to finish the empirical part of my study on the governance of maternal and child health care (MCH) in rural China, I conducted three rounds of field trip in rural China, in March-May, August-September, and November-December, respectively. The aims of these trips are to design the framework of the empirical part, choose the sample counties, and collect data including statistical information, experts’ opinions, and official documents in related. To reach these aims, I visited the major organizations of MCH both at the national level and at the regional level, for instance, the Ministry of Health, the Department of Health in Yunnan Province, and the MCH Center in Jianchuan County and Heqing County, etc. These visits helped me to collect a number of valuable information about the local governance of MCH in rural and least-developed areas. The Interviews with the high level officials, the local cadres, the local service providers and the local village communities gave me a good chance to well understand the real situation and problems in MCH field in rural China. Based upon the information gathered from these three rounds of field investigation in China, I worked out the analytical framework and two cases of my empirical part of the dissertation.