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Outcomes of the Methodology Workshops - Preparing for field research

The project conducted three Methodology Training Workshops for each research team per case study country, between 25 January and 10 February, 2016. The first two workshops in Kiev (Ukraine) and Tbilisi (Georgia) were for the Ukrainian and Georgian consortium partners (IWP and TSU) and the third in Barcelona was a combined workshop for partners from Mali (USJPB) and Yemen (PDF). This third workshop had to be organised out of country due to the security situation in both Mali and Yemen, and travel restrictions. 

Goals and objectives of the MTWs were:

  • To familiarize the research teams with the project logic and the interlinkages between phases and work packages to ensure coherence in the work plan.
  • To present the core conceptual themes of the project and central research questions to ensure consistency of scientific approach and the ethos underlying the research agenda (see theoretical framework)
  • To discuss proposed topics to be researched as part of each country case study, including the criteria for (sub)case and stakeholder selection
  • To undertake preliminary stakeholder mapping and analysis
  • To explore and discuss different levels of research questions to be used
  • To help teams prepare actionable research plans, including policies on data collection, management and awareness of ethical responsibilities
  • To build team capacity in terms of research methods and innovative techniques of data collection.

Outcomes and results

The workshops provided a vehicle for active engagement and participation by the country teams, in keeping with WOSCAP's bottom-up approach. The training was based on the Theoretical and Methodological Framework report, January 2016. Discussions included the nature and phase of conflict, and multiple conceptualisations of security. Appropriate research methods and the choice of relevant stakeholders were also discussed. Each team presented a short overview of the security situation in its country, the EU presence and a list of potential in-depth research topics for discussion.

The country teams appreciated the plenary discussion of scoping studies and the conceptual themes of the project, to explain how WOSCAP proposes to make an original contribution to practice development and scholarly knowledge. Equally, the presentation of novel research techniques including how to utilise different levels of questions to structure the research, the dialogic research method and technology tools for data collection helped to augment their existing knowledge and capacity.

It was particularly valuable to compare and draw references between the country groups. In the case of Barcelona the two teams benefitted from sessions where they could discuss the conflict situation and compare policy responses. This facilitated cross-learning and helped build relationships within the project.

In addition, sessions were devoted to discuss in larger detail the planning, execution and reporting on the case studies that are part of work package 3. This was a first step in the writing of ‘actionable research plans'. The workshop provided a significant contribution to this task and considerable progress has been made since then. The plans will be further updated and refined after the first month of field work in at the end of March 2016.

The workshops also provided an occasion in Kyiv and Tbilisi for country partners and Utrecht University to meet key stakeholders, including EU Delegations.

 


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