Sources of evidence and openness in field-intensive research on violent conflict

Abstract

This article engages with Steven Lubet's arguments in Interrogating Ethnography on reliability of evidence and replication of findings in ethnographic research. It draws on eight months of immersive fieldwork on Abkhaz mobilization in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-1993 to show that field-intensive researchers who work on sensitive political topics leverage multiple sources to develop their insights and engage in reflexivity while prioritizing the safety of their research participants. It is these practices that underlie the trustworthiness of research and form the basis for the evaluation of research results rather than verification standards proposed by Lubet that do not, and cannot, apply to this kind of research.