Research Methods in Human Rights: A Handbook(Handbooks of Research Methods in Law series)

Methodological discussion has largely been neglected in human rights research, with legal scholars in particular tending to address research methods and methodological reflection implicitly rather than explicitly. This book advances thinking on human rights methodology, offering instruction and guidance on the methodological approaches to human rights research. Seeking to bridge the methodological deficit often compounded by the interdisciplinary nature of human rights research, contributions by leading scholars in a range of evolving fields, provide an up-to-date assessment of human rights methods. The various chapters apply these methods to different substantive areas including discrimination, the right to food, the right to water, public health and gender. This book gives a comprehensive treatment of disciplinary approaches, discusses methodological options and provides advice on how best to conduct human rights research in the crossroads of different academic disciplines. Accessible and engaging, this book will be of keen interest to students and scholars working in human rights research, both those approaching it from a legal standpoint and those of other social science disciplines. Both practical and timely, the book will also lend itself to human rights practitioners and policy-makers. Contributors: B.A. Andreassen, H. Bondevik, I. Bostad, R. Burke, A.-L. Chané, S. Engle Merry, L. Ferguson, A. Hellum, S.L.B. Jensen, D. Kacinski, M. Langford, T.M. Martin, S. McInerney-Lankford, D. Petrova, H.-O. Sano, M. Satterthwaite, M. Scehinin, A. Scharma, K. Shields, G. Ulrich, S. Walker

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1. Human rights research method Bård A. Andreassen, Hans-Otto Sano and Siobhán McInerney-Lankford Part I Human Rights Research Methods inside Disciplines 2. The art and science of interpretation in human rights law Martin Scheinin 3. Legal methodologies and human rights research: Challenges and opportunities Siobhán McInerney-Lankford 4. Core principles in argumentation and understanding: Hermeneutics and human rights Hilde Bondevik and Inga Bostad 5. Economics and human rights Edward Anderson 6. From the normative to the transnational: Methods in the study of human rights history Steven L. B. Jensen and Roland Burke 7. The potential of ethnographic methods for human rights research Sally Engle Merry Part II Human Rights Research Methods across Disciplines 8. Interdisciplinarity and multimethod research Malcolm Langford 9. Research ethics for human rights researchers George Ulrich 10. Comparative analyses of human rights performance Bård A. Andreassen 11. Inside the organization. Methods of researching human rights and organizational dynamics Hans-Otto Sano and Tomas Max Martin 12. Quantitative methods in advocacy oriented human rights research Margaret Satterthwaite and Daniel Kacinski 13. Challenges of Human Rights Measurement Simon Walker 14. Methods of monitoring the right to food Kirsteen Shields 15. Social network analysis in human rights research Anna-Luise Chané and Arjun Sharma 16. Researching discrimination Dimitrina Petrova 17. Assessing work at the intersection of health and human rights: why? how? and who? Laura Ferguson 18. Studying how to study human rights in plural legal contexts: An exploration of plural water laws in Zimbabwe Anne Hellum Index

About the Author :
Edited by Bård A. Andreassen, Professor, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, Norway, Hans-Otto Sano, Senior Researcher, Emeritus, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark and Siobhán McInerney-Lankford, The World Bank, US

Review :
'The expert contributions represent critical and reflective assessments of how to research human rights. The volume discusses different disciplinary perspectives, including law, economics, history, political science and ethnography. In a global setting where major social challenges require multidisciplinary responses, the volume is especially welcome for the careful presentation and exploration of different disciplinary perspectives but also interdisciplinary methodology. The contributors offer helpful discussions of the nuances and complexities within each approach. An essential work for any reading list on human rights.' --Rory O'Connell, Ulster University, Northern Ireland'This book contributes to bringing human rights research out of its infancy. Having matured over three decades, it is high time to raise the discussion on its methodology to a new level. With its roots in legal studies, human rights research today embraces a much wider range of disciplines. Offering a profound, interdisciplinary analysis, this book offers the reader a deepened understanding across many fields. It will soon be a classic in higher education and research institutions.' --Morten Kjaerum, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Sweden