FIELDWORK AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM - Morten Bøås

The views and opinions expressed in this text are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the donors. [...] As such this is an attempt to reflect on some of the mistakes that I have made during fieldwork, and to define some of the dilemmas that arise doing this type of research on violent extremist ideolo- gies and the actors supporting them – dilemmas that we can prepare to face, but that irrespe- ctive of what some ethics research boards seems to believe, we cannot simply resolve once and for all. [...] The reasons for this rest in the deep uncertainties and fears that are brought about by a combination of insecurity and the near im- possibility of accessing the most research-relevant parts of these territories. [...] Following the foregoing elaborations, I will now address issues concerning the personal safety of researchers and respondents in the field - including informant anonymity, the positionality of the researcher, and how we can design and generate fieldwork research methods that provide safety for researchers as well as respondents, without compromising data quality and ethical standards. [...] Not only for his role as the man behind the attack against the In Aménas gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that made him the most famous and most wanted jihadi in the Sahel, but by his full life trajectory — how as a young man he left Algeria in the 1980s to fight in Afghanistan, then re- turned and played a role in the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, followed by his time as a bandit, smuggler and ins.