Methods Archaeology
The study of security pluralities demands many different types of research methods and draws on a range of methodological frameworks. In this cluster we share methods expertise through questioning the ‘origin’ stories of (information) security by engaging with a range of underacknowledged research methods and a critical reflection on the positionality associated with different research methods. Through this sharing, we will be able to trace the evolutionary journeys of the research methods that we use identifying how the methods shape different modes of security thinking and the powers that different research methods wield.
The Interdisciplinary Security Collective (ISC) works across the spectrum of security studies from technological forms of security to highly situated studies of human security, from abstracted models of information protection to the co-creation of national and international security policies. By working across the security studies spectrum in this way, research designs draw on many research traditions, deploying research methods from these traditions. It can also be the case that existing research methods are insufficient and research method innovation is required. But in focusing on the new and on the next [project], it is easy to lose sight of what has been created, where it is drawn from and why. Therefore, methods archaeology is a cluster that grounds the ISC initiatives and offers a space in which members of the collective support each other to respond to complex interdisciplinary security questions.
Potential areas of study include:
- How might the origin stories of research methods help us to understand our security pasts?
- How might research methods be used to trace responsibilities across and within different security constellations?
- In what ways to research methods contribute to the disappearing human in security narratives and design?
- How might research methods enable us to measure the different characteristics / affordances/ components of security thinking?