73 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY This chapter attempts to explain three issues: (1) the ontological and epistemological considerations essential for studying the research theme, (2) the methodological approaches used when studying the subject at hand, and (3) the potential biases and limitations of these approaches. But, before venturing into those three main concerns, it will be appropriate to discuss a little about the circumstances from which the research idea originated. This will help us understand the underlying strength as well as the potential bias that may be inherent in the overall approach to the research theme. The background information presented in this chapter identifies and describes the history and nature of the research problem with reference to the existing literature. It will indicate the root of the problem being studied, its scope, and the extent to which previous studies have investigated the problem so far highlighting the gaps that still exist that the present study attempts to address. It places the research problem in proper context rather than provide a thorough examining pertinent literature.
74 3.1. PRE-UNDERSTANDING The researcher s pre-understanding of the post-conflict societies and transitional justice stems from both his work experience in working in such countries, states and communities across Asia and Africa and selective readings of theory. His exposure to post-conflict reconstruction efforts, especially in the area of nation development policies and poverty reduction oriented governance strategies, while working on various assignments with the United Nations agencies in countries like Cambodia (1999), Rwanda (2000-2001). Ethiopia (2003-2006), Sierra Leone (2004-2005), Sudan (2005-2006) embellished this pre-understanding that the global contexts of transitional justice may or may not be a referral framework for peace-building nearer home (in Assam and Mizoram). Starting with a reading of various prior peace agreements in India (TNV Accord, Shillong Accord) and abroad (Oslo Accord, Dayton Accord, Philippines and South African Peace Accords) and other works in this subject of transitional justice gave the researcher an opportunity to reflect more systematically about the constructive role and function of developing an alternative indicators of success or a benchmarking model with a strong theoretical basis from Indian experiences in peace-building through peace accords. The researcher started with an initial idea to study why peace accords signed by the same government apparently failed to deliver the expected results in one state while it became a successful platform in another. But, when this research proposal was being finalized, the actual research design for this study was conceptualized by conducting some preparatory interviews, it was realized that it needed a more complex comparative analysis of the locale specific responses to truly examine the relationship between justice narrative, popular perceptions, societal attitudes and responses to post-conflict peace-building interventions.
75 Since one of the major research questions formulated for this thesis is to explore whether the prevailing concept of theories of transitional justice is applicable in Indian context as seen from the two cases of Assam and Mizoram, it started with some examples of transitional justice scenarios elsewhere in the world. Further, the researcher s practical experiences of working with UN agencies in various countries naturally led to using the World Bank s Post Conflict Performance Indicators framework (PCPI) as a set of global baseline criteria to assess a country s performance and the same was used to examine whether the same can be used as an universal framework of reference to assesses the quality of a provincial state s policy and institutional framework to support a successful transition and recovery from conflict and to foster sustainable growth through collaborative efforts of the government and the civil society. The content of the World Bank s framework reflects the emerging consensus that development challenges in post conflict and other fragile situations require a deep understanding of the links among the security, political, economic, and social spheres. Given the range and complexity of such relations, some topics that are specific to the local societies under study, it is natural that some issues might very well fall outside the Bank s traditional development mandate that need to be considered in the present thesis. In order to avoid this limitation and potential bias towards UN frameworks disregarding other indicators developed by non-un organizations, the research design and methodology adopted in the present work go beyond its core mandate to incorporate local factors that contribute towards the effectiveness of its interventions in areas at high risk of, or affected by, conflict. The original PCPI framework was presented in Adapting IDA s Performance-Based Allocations to Post-Conflict Countries (IDA 2001). The assessments are undertaken in an objective and impartial manner that do not entail passing a political judgment on a state, its people or its government. When preparing the interview schedules, the researcher consulted with members of the
76 (former) parties in conflict, government officials and members of the civil society in general to ensure that the present study covers all the relevant developments in the state and also take into consideration the past studies of other international agencies (ADB 2001, 2010, 2011 and 2012) that may have particular expertise in areas that fall outside the Bank s PCPI framework. This consultation process helped strengthen the robustness of the present research design. 3.2. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY The present study can be categorized as a combination of descriptive, qualitative and analytical research. Hence, the methodology adopted for this study included a combination of the Focused (Semi-structured) interviews, descriptive research techniques and qualitative interpretations. Focused (Semistructured) Interviews technique was used to collect qualitative data by setting up a situation (the interview) that allows a respondent the time and scope to talk about their opinions on a particular subject. The objective is to understand the respondent's point of view rather than make generalizations about behaviour. There will be an open ended list of pre-decided questions and but the actual interview may include questions that occur to the researcher during the interview. This descriptive research perspective in the study presented the state of affairs as it exists at present. It may also be called ex-post facto research as the researcher had no control over the variables and reported only what had happened or what was happening. The analytical part of the study focused on an attempt by researchers to discover causes even without control over the variables. Qualitative analysis undertaken in this study was aimed at discovering the underlying issues in social contexts from the data collected from respondents. The study also involved a large amount of literature review collecting data from existing
77 resources through both internal and external desk research techniques. Desk research is very effective and can be conducted in starting phase of research as it is quite quick and most of the basic information like official documents, data, and literature review on the subject could be easily fetched which can be used as a benchmark in the research progress. The overall approach adopted in this study was qualitative approach to research that was concerned with subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions and behaviour. Research in such a situation was a function of researcher s insights and impressions. Such an approach to research generated results in mainly nonquantitative form or in the form which were not subjected to rigorous quantitative analysis though it does occasionally refer to the data in quantitative terms with respect to a particular survey question. Generally, the techniques of focus group interviews and in-depth interviews were used. The research examined the post peace agreement scenarios of Assam and Mizoram. The Assam Agitation (or Assam Movement) was a popular movement against undocumented migrants in Assam between 1979 and 1985. The agitation programme ended in 1985 following the Assam Accord that was signed between the agitation leaders and the Government of India (See full text of the in Appendix B). The Mizo Peace Accord, which was signed a year later than the Assam Accord is a case in contrast (see full text in Appendix D). The research examined the two cases through the lens of government and civil society efforts and evaluated what worked and what did not. A descriptive methodology helped to delineate commonalities and differences in experiences and in the adoption of a success indicators framework. The research also used this detailed analysis to map the reform and reconstruction process in each case. A descriptive-qualitative framework was found appropriate for several reasons. First, once a conflict has ended we have little systematic data on the economic and political reform processes. Most economic data are outcome
78 indicators that fail to provide sufficient insight into the effects of specific policies and societal participation. No data bank provides systematic data on the timing and sequencing of government interventions and civil society interactions. So, the two peace agreements under the scanner provided important insights into the policy issues. Second, these two agreements are distinctively different in their pre-agreement scenarios and the lessons from divergent outcomes of the post peace accord interventions in Assam and Mizoram presented a very good opportunity to identify policies and conditions under which post-peace accord transitional justice yield the desired results. Finally, as both the state belonged to Northeast India (consisting of a total of eight states) the study also offered sufficient insight into a regional context to the conflicts. In each of the two agreements, the research was focused on the following questions: what major components of western concept of transitional justice were reflected in the states since the cessation of conflict? When were the various reforms instituted? Were there any watershed events that made the transitional justice possible or impossible? Who were the actors for bringing out a sense of transitional justice and what were their roles, goals and motivations? What was the role of government s policies on accountability, justice (in terms of rehabilitation of the victims of conflict)? What was the role of government on policing and quelling violence, political mediation, and reforming erstwhile militant groups? Looking at whether the two peace accords met their objectives, the study then assessed them using a multi-dimensional performance indicators matrix in order to bring out a new approach and success indicators framework for peace accords in post-conflict societies. This was done after comparing and contrasting the case studies on the effectiveness of several policies, and several semistructured interviews with a cross section of stakeholders. Three types of stakeholders were included in this study. The first category of interviewees were the key government officials. The second category of interviewees included civil
79 society organizations (their representatives). The third category of interviewees included former members of the agitation groups who signed the peace accords with the government. The selection of the interviewees was based on whether they had a firsthand experience on post peace accord interventions. By looking at the available literature on themes a list of interviewees was compiled and their addresses were tracked. With an oral consent protocol, the interviews were conducted with two groups of thirty interviewees from each state. The participants were informed that the researcher will use the information for research purposes only and their identity or any information that would identify them to anyone outside of the study will not be disclosed without their permission, except as required by law. As a general principle it was ensured to the interviewees that specific quotes would not be attributed by their name or title. Out of sixty interviewees, eighteen of them submitted their written answers by email, twenty-four of them were interviewed by telephone, and the rest were interviewed in-person. The Interviewees response were then tabulated and analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Twenty percent of the interviewees also participated in a series of follow-up interviews, which helped the researcher to clarify some of the issues raised by them in the first stage. However, it should be acknowledged that the comments provided by interviewees are strictly in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect those of their organizations or governments.
80 3.3. RESEARCH DESIGN As this study adopted a descriptive and contextual qualitative approach, the research design reflected the elements of qualitative research that refers to inductive, holistic, emic, and subjective. It is a systematic, subjective approach used to describe life experiences and give them meaning (Day 1993, Erlandson, Harris, Skipper and Allen 1993, Feyerabend 1993). Qualitative research was mostly associated with words, language and experiences rather than measurements, statistics and numerical figures. There were three stages in the research design developed for this study. The conceptual stage covered the formulation of the research question, the objectives and the purpose of the study. Then a literature review was done to become familiar with the content of the literature. The second stage involved the research design and planning of the study. The third stage was the empirical part of a research study and involved the actual data collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The data collection was conducted through semi-structured interview the participants was accompanied by notes were made during the interview. Data collection and analysis were carried out in two phases. The first phase started after the first series of interviews and in the second phase the interviewees were contacted again for more qualitative input bases on some specific issues that came up during the first phase analysis. During the data interpretation, analysis and discussion the researcher used an exploratory, descriptive and contextual qualitative research design. Burns and Grove (2003) define exploratory research as research conducted to gain new insights and discover new ideas. A descriptive approach in data collection in qualitative research gives the ability to collect accurate data on and provide a clear picture of the phenomenon under study (Mouton and Marais 1996). In the present study, the descriptive approach was
81 particularly appropriate because an authentic description was required of the experiences of the respondents. Data gathering is the precise, systematic gathering of information relevant to the research sub-problems, using methods such as interviews (Burns and Grove 2003). The data collection was reflective to give the participants the opportunity to reflectively express their experience. In this study the collection of raw data from participants took place in one stage. Interviewing refers to the semistructured verbal communication between the researcher and the participants (respondents), in which information is presented to the researcher. The open or semi-unstructured interviewing was considered the main method of data collection in this research as it provided a situation where the participants descriptions can be explored, illuminated and gently probed (Kvale 1996). De Vos (2002) observed that the aim of the semi-structured interview was to actively enter the world of people and to render those worlds understandable from the standpoint of a theory that is grounded in behaviours, languages, definitions, attitudes and feelings of those studied. This approach reflects the open and accepting style of interviewing that seeks to elicit the genuine views and feelings of participants. During the researcher took reasonable caution to prevent the participants from feeling that they are being cross-examined on a topic (Burns and Grove 2003). Interviews were usually initiated with a broad or general question. After the interview had begun, the role of the researcher was to encourage the participants to continue talking, using techniques such as nodding the head or making sounds that indicate interest. In some cases, the participants were slightly encouraged to elaborate further on a particular dimension of a topic of discussion (Burns and Grove 2003) by using probes. The open-ended questions did not need a one-word answer but provide interviewees with ample opportunity to express their feelings (De Vos 2002) and allow participants to respond in their own words.
82 3.4. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS The researcher had a moral obligation to strictly consider the rights of the participants who were expected to provide input to the study. Hence, the researcher considered it very important to establish trust between the participants and himself and to respect them as autonomous beings, thus enabling them to make sound decisions (Burns and Grove 2003). The social researcher s responsibility to protect the human rights of study participants is universally prescribed in ethics codes and guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki. 9 In addition, the collection of accurate data depends upon the cooperation of respondents: individuals are more likely to agree to participate in a study and to give complete, accurate information if they feel that they can trust the research organization. Finally, a positive experience with regard to the research interaction encourages participation in future research. Ethical considerations were an important aspect in this study; due to the sensitive nature of the study, possible risks were continuously examined to increase sensitivity to the participants and not to expose them. Ethical measures are as important in qualitative research as in quantitative research and include ethical conduct towards participant s information as well as honest reporting of the results. The ethical measures in this study include consent, confidentiality and anonymity, privacy, dissemination of results and the right to withdraw from the study. 9 World Medical Association (WMA). (1964). Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects (adopted amended 29th WMA General Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964; 1975; 35th WMA General Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983; 41st WMA General Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989; 48th WMA General Assembly, Somerset West, Republic of South Africa, October 1996; and 52nd WMA General Assembly, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2000. Available at: http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/helsinki.html
83 3.5. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study encountered some limitations in terms of scope, operational and ethical challenges. In terms of scope, this study does not examine all types of intervention failures. Rather, it focuses on those cases of major expectations mismatch with respect to the declared objectives or terms of the peace agreements. Further, in case studies, especially in case of Assam, all cases of violence that occurred prior to the signing of peace accord were not covered. Rather, two major cases - Nellie Massacre (1983) and Bombing of Mizoram (1966) were primarily referred to in the present study. Another challenge faced by the researcher was not being able to understand the spoken language of Mizoram or to understand fully the crosscultural nuances and symbols of the people interviewed. It may represent, however small, a limitation on the interpretation of the interviews. Lack of cultural understanding often prevents a researcher to make legitimate claims about the underlying meaning of what an informants tells. Absence of a crosscultural analysis of key-terms of transitional justice used in the interview would have been helpful. However, that would have been a complex and timeconsuming task beyond the stipulated period allowed for a doctoral research. In spite of these limitations, the validity of the present research emanates from the fact that it used a general conceptual framework to find out something new about the phenomenon studied.