Qualitative Transparency Deliberations

[Sherrill Stroschein University College London]

I posted in the first round about the dangers posed by DA-RT on research on nationalism. In a related move, the Association for the Study of Nationalities released a statement that DA-RT poses a danger to our ability to conduct research. There are three clear types of harms to persons that can result from the implementation of the DA-RT requirements. The first type involves harm to individual sources who provide interviews or materials to researchers, and the second the potential harm to researchers in terms of their continued ability to conduct research. There is also a third area of harm that relates to the damage that can be done to the relationship between researchers and sources.

In addition to these harms is the fact that in fraught contexts, everything written can become political. The DA-RT efforts do not recognise that those we research are agents themselves, and can try to obtain our data and materials to fight their own political battles. It is thus not just authoritarian states or state strategies that are at issue, but the fact that there are also actors on the ground that have their own potential reasons to make use of our materials. I have seen nothing from the DA-RT advocate side that acknowledges this potential, but the use of the Boston College archives by one side in the Northern Ireland conflict is just one example of how this can develop.

I am attaching here a copy of my paper on these matters. A link to the ASN statement on DA-RT is here: http://nationalities.org/news/asn-issue ... ding-da-rt

[Zachariah Mampilly Vassar]

Thank you for post and for sharing the ASN statement and your own paper Sherrill. I think both are highly relevant and raise important issues about whether research on politics can ever be truly objective especially when dealing with politically sensitive subjects.