Description
Researchers conducting interviews in the security and defence sector inevitably face challenges related to access and secrecy. Feminist scholars often encounter additional barriers, as their topics and approaches may be perceived as risky, irrelevant or undesirable, leading potential interviewees to decline or refer the researcher to “the gender people”. This dynamic significantly impacts how much scholars are willing and able to disclose about themselves and their research while making sure to uphold feminist research ethics. Navigating these obstacles shapes the interview process, especially when managing proximity and distance with interviewees. While much of the existing literature focuses on the interview itself, this paper posits that the effects of the proximity-distance continuum materialize from the initial contact with potential interviewees and extend far beyond the interview’s conclusion. Drawing on insights from elite interviews in the German security and defence sector, it argues that framing one’s research in a way that seems more appealing to potential interviewees to get them to participate in a study often carries risks for both researchers and participants. These include challenges to informed consent and the possibility of participants feeling misrepresented in research outputs as well as the risk of scholarly militarization and inadvertently reinforcing militarized narratives.
