Research on the security politics of the European Union is becoming increasingly abundant. To further the aims of this special issue on methodology among critical approaches to security, this article draws on the appropriation by this scholarship of the “social life of methods” debate to open two related lines of investigation. First, the article examines the inscription of researchers into European security politics not only as a limit to research, but as a method of access and analysis. The article looks particularly at the identification of researchers as “experts” by EU practitioners, and at expertise as method. The second line of investigation and reflection concerns the limits inherent to the way in which critical scholarship on security has appropriated the “social life of methods” discussion. The article argues that this is an opportunity to engage with methods in relation to concrete research endeavors, rather than to stage a theoretical discussion on methods.
Stephan Davidshofer, Amal Tawfik, and Tobias Hagmann
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Investigating the possible emergence of a transnational field of security in Europe constitutes a very stimulating research venue for literature on critical approaches to security. However, the operationalization of such an agenda entails some challenges. Notably, time-consuming data collection and analytical processes are needed in order to fully grasp the characteristics and resources of numerous actors. Drawing on a research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), the aim of this paper is double. It offers both an analysis of the contemporary dynamics of the field of security in Switzerland and a presentation of practical solutions for researchers willing to conduct empirically-oriented studies of different settings of the transnational field of security in Europe. In order to do so, this contribution stands as a methodological roadmap, presenting the various steps leading to the construction of a national social space dedicated to “security issues”. Given the significant volume of data collected in this research project, a series of statistical analysis methods are mobilized in this paper: multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and network analysis. Lastly, in summarizing the project’s results, the paper points to the growing influence of transnational security dynamics on Swiss security actors.