Methods in (Anti)-Corruption Research

Weekly internal seminar by the CAT group lead by Ilona Wysmulek, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Communication discussed by Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, directeur d'études à l'EHESS à Marseille, directeur de recherches CNRS émérite, et professeur associé à l'Université Abdou-Moumouni (Niamey, Niger), membre du LASDEL, Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local.

Presentation

Corruption and anti-corruption scholars and practitioners alike underline the need for theory-based and context-embedded empirical research. At the same time the resources that speak about the challenges of conducting research on corruption and anti-corruption are largely missing. In this project, the group aims to address this gap and critically reflect on the impact of the research subject - corruption/anti-corruption – on the research design. They are interested in the research process starting from the choice of theoretical paradigm, moving to challenges of linking concepts, data and methods, as well as the sensitive and rare data analysis, when applied to studying corruption and anti-corruption.

For this seminar at the Paris IAS, the research group seeks the feedback and discussion on possible ways they can address their newly gathered survey data about practices and challenges of the (anti-)corruption research community. It seems important to reflect on how the corruption research field may be impacted by perceptions of obstacles by the researchers themselves. The group searches for theoretical background to help develop an argument on how researchers make decisions about their research design and possible determinants of perceived obstacles in conducting research.