3R: “In empirical research it’s good to have a bit of luck and then seize the opportunity…”. On the methodology of the “Three Ukrainian Revolutions” research project – an interview with prof. Georges Mink

Abstract

Interviewing is both about science and art. What is your experience with this research method? Which of your lessons can be used for the 3R project and maybe by other budding researchers1? Georges Mink: Let me go back to the time of my university studies. My scientific history starts at the time when social sciences were subject to major ideological pressures and research methodology was marked by clashes between positivists, on the one hand, and Marxists and post-Marxists thinkers as proponents of qualitative methods on the other. I witnessed these clashes during my early years at the University of Warsaw where I was the student of Stefan Nowak and Zygmunt Bauman. The former, a positivist, valued more standardized quantitative methodologies which resembled a laboratory-type approach. On the other hand, there was the 1 This paper was written within the framework of the "3 Revolutions" project implemented by the College of Europe in Natolin.