Investigative Ethnography: A Spatial Approach to Economies of Violence

Ballvé, Teo

doi:10.1111/gere.12347

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…adopting a methodology that Ballvé (2020) recently described as 'investigative ethnography.' Investigative ethnography represents a blended research approach combining the interest in fact-finding and use of public records related to incidents of wrongdoing familiar to investigative journalism, with the contextual and interpretivist work of ethnography as thick description (Ballvé, 2020). In this sense I was both interested in some of the basic questions a rigorous journalist might pursue in uncovering the 'true' nature of this illicit trade, while at the same time I approached these questions through the inductive lens of ethnographic inquiry.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this sense I was both interested in some of the basic questions a rigorous journalist might pursue in uncovering the 'true' nature of this illicit trade, while at the same time I approached these questions through the inductive lens of ethnographic inquiry. An ethnographic perspective demands a critical stance toward ideas of the neutral positionality as a researcher, as a researcher, and an equally critical stance towards the idea of an objective or singular 'truth' about the drivers and mechanisms underlying this emergent illicit trade (Ballvé, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Korean ‘Housewives’ and ‘Hipsters’ Are Not Driving a New Illicit Plant Trade: Complicating Consumer Motivations Behind an Emergent Wildlife Trade in Dudleya farinosa

Margulies

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Illegal trade in wild plants receives less scientific and policy attention than illegal trade in wild animals and animal-derived products. One exception to this generalizable trend is the recent emergence of an illegal trade in the California succulent species Dudleya farinosa. US officials and mainstream media reporting on these incidents suggest the final destination of these plants is succulent consumer markets in South Korea and other East Asian countries. It is believed that this illegal trade emerged in response to sudden and widespread consumer demand for succulents due to: (1) the increasing popularity of succulent plants in mainstream South Korean and East Asian cultures writ large; and (2) the preferential valuing of 'wild' versus cultivated plants by succulent consumers. Based on findings from content analysis of media reports and in-depth qualitative interviews in California and South Korea, I argue instead for a more nuanced perspective of the drivers of this emergent trade, with the primary motivational desire for these plants coming from a selective and highly skilled community of succulent enthusiasts, rather than mainstream plant consumer groups. In presenting these findings I demonstrate the importance of in-depth, critical qualitative research for exploring the emergence of particular trades in wildlife in order to inform more sustainable and legal trades. I clarify the primary drivers of this new trade in Dudleya farinosa as an illegal but logical response to the economics and temporalities of plant trade. I offer suggestions on how these findings can inform more sustainable solutions to the illicit extraction of wild plants in meeting consumer demand.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Korean ‘Housewives’ and ‘Hipsters’ Are Not Driving a New Illicit Plant Trade: Complicating Consumer Motivations Behind an Emergent Wildlife Trade in Dudleya farinosa

Margulies

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…At and between these sites, I conducted what Ballvé (2019) has termed an "investigative ethnography." This ethnographic stance has an epistemological approach rooted in prioritisation of fact-finding as a means to develop meaningful understandings of violent spaces in which misunderstanding, confusion, and deception prevent the disclosure and confirmation of basic empirical facts.…”

Section: An Investigative Ethnography Of Art Stock-outs In South Kivumentioning

confidence: 99%

The tyranny of empty shelves: Scarcity and the political manufacture of antiretroviral stock‐outs in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Taylor

2020

Trans Inst British Geog

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At the margins of the global scale-up of antiretroviral treatment for HIV, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has experienced severe regional stock-outs of essential medicines. Usually framed by global health actors as signs of technical, logistical, and professional deficiency, antiretroviral scarcity is -perhaps surprisingly -rarely considered to be an exceptional event. Attention to the local consequences of scarcity in the east of the country, however, suggests that stock-outs arise from far more than mere infrastructural failings. Drawing on an investigative ethnography conducted in the province of South Kivu between 2016 and 2018, this paper examines how stock-outs in the region have political functions rooted in the calculated denial of medicine to geopolitically significant communities and individuals. Informed by extant research the geopolitics of health, I begin by conceptually framing the geographical significance of stock-outs and locate in their origins and functions the discriminate use of scarcity as a biopolitical tool. Then, drawing on interviews and the analysis of previously unpublished and uncollated stock records, I demonstrate the technical and political origins of stock-outs at six dispensaries in the province. The supply of essential medicines, I argue, has become weaponised and their denial represents a strategic gambit for armed actors seeking territorial footholds in the region. Focusing on the cases of two out-of-stock towns in the south of the province, I then examine patients' agonising experiences of stock-outs, the poisoning and distortion of local moral economies that scarcity gives rise to, and the profoundly ambiguous transformations of therapeutic citizenship birthed by denial of treatment. I conclude by returning to the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment and review the critical avenues opened up for health geographers by a focus on the provisioning, scarcity, and denial of essential medicines.

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“…Institutional constraints and academic conventions conspire to leave such uncertainty mostly ignored (Bhattacharya, 2014; Hicks, 2009). Although the risk of violence and other repercussions associated with illicit activities make them dangerous or difficult for researchers to study directly (Ballvé, 2019a), ignoring the influence of these activities is also problematic—both for the conclusions drawn from the research and in the consequences for local communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambiguous spaces, empirical traces: Accounting for ignorance when researching around the illicit

Dev

Miller²,

et al. 2022

Progress in Human Geography

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Human geographers investigating socio-environmental change in resource frontiers often encounter illicit activities occurring alongside the licit processes they study. These encounters pose logistical challenges to conducting research and moral and analytical dilemmas for researchers. Illicit activities produce what we refer to as spheres of ambiguity, which obscure certain information, relationships, and phenomena surrounding them. We address the dearth of analytical tools for approaching the uncertainty this generates by bringing concepts from agnotology—the study of ignorance—to bear on research conducted amidst illicit activity, offering a framework for systematically evaluating ambiguous field data that is incompletely observed or reported.

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Investigative Ethnography: A Spatial Approach to Economies of Violence

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

Korean ‘Housewives’ and ‘Hipsters’ Are Not Driving a New Illicit Plant Trade: Complicating Consumer Motivations Behind an Emergent Wildlife Trade in Dudleya farinosa

Korean ‘Housewives’ and ‘Hipsters’ Are Not Driving a New Illicit Plant Trade: Complicating Consumer Motivations Behind an Emergent Wildlife Trade in Dudleya farinosa

The tyranny of empty shelves: Scarcity and the political manufacture of antiretroviral stock‐outs in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ambiguous spaces, empirical traces: Accounting for ignorance when researching around the illicit

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