Breaking the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide in Peace and Conflict Studies

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Methodology & Political Science Education & Civic Engagement
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Political Methodology

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the focus on peace research has followed the traditional research in Political Science and International Relations being either quantitative or qualitative. One of the problems with this is that each strand has presented very different results without much contrast or dialogue. The qualitative literature has tended to focus on single case or small N, under a broad focus of inquiry that has questioned the power relations underpinning peacebuilding and its limited success. The quantitative literature has tended to focus on effectiveness, presenting more success stories based on the positive relation between peacebuilding and democratisation. The paper presents two nuanced datasets that synergise quantitative and qualitative insights from the main peacebuilding actors (UN and EU), offering a better measuring of their effectiveness without disregarding the structural power underpinnings. With this the paper contributes in three ways. First, shows that quantitative and qualitative approaches work well together and are able to show nuanced insights of both present and past practices in peacebuilding. Second, it shows that peacebuilding is better seen as a changing process and its analysis has to take into consideration both quantitative and qualitative features. Finally, it presents a mixed method approach, which is able to synergise results and capture the changing practices that characterise peacebuilding.

Authors

• marta iñiguez de heredia

• Sinem Arslan