Saturday, February 9, 2013

Cohn Case Study

Carol Cohn's piece, ""Motives and Methods: Using multi-sited ethnography to study U.S. national security discourses" stresses the importance of comprehensivity in research. Being comprehensive allows for an examination of multi-sited research (among other locations, Cohn interviewed at war colleges, military academies and nuclear sites). Cohn became interested in the topic when she noted gendered rhetoric while studying national security rhetoric during the Cold War era. She interviewed a wide range of individuals including: military spouses, enlisted personnel, officers, and scientists. Cohn also discusses the influence of bias and stereotypes. Biases existed on both ends. For example, she noted civilian vs. military biases, male vs. female biases, career biases, and her own difficulty interviewing whom she viewed as a war criminal.

Cohn, Carol (2006) "Motives and Methods: Using multi-sited ethnography to study U.S. national security discourses" In: Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True (eds) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. Cambridge University Press: pp. 129-152.

                                                            - Laur and Edwin

No comments:

Post a Comment