Andreassen, Bård A.; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán --- "Human rights research method" [2017] ELECD 707; in Andreassen, A. Bård; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán (eds), "Research Methods in Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 1

Book Title: Research Methods in Human Rights

Editor(s): Andreassen, A. Bård; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785367786

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Human rights research method

Author(s): Andreassen, Bård A.; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

In the contemporary world, international human rights discourse has grown in prominence at international, national and local levels. At the same time, human rights are challenged and violated throughout the world every day, but nowhere can they be said to lack relevance for human life and interaction, or for social, cultural, institutional and economic change. Human rights inform political debates, social movements, rule-making and international relations in a variety of ways. Yet how robust is our knowledge of human rights, and of the role of human rights in the formation and transformation of societies? How do we construct human rights knowledge? What approaches and methods do researchers use to document the enjoyment of particular human rights, interpret human rights norms, identify the ‘real content’ of rights, ensure their effective realization across policy contexts or develop tools for reliable human rights measurement and research? How do different academic disciplines formulate and approach human rights issues within, but also increasingly across, disciplines? These are some of the questions addressed in this volume. To some extent, the methods applied to human rights research reflect an understanding of the values and aims of the human rights discourse itself, and these methods are key to advancing an understanding of human rights in a variety of contexts and disciplines. The concern with methods is common to several disciplines engaged in human rights. Clarity on the methods advanced within each discipline is key to an understanding of the human rights discourse overall and to ensuring its normative promise. This volume departs from a premise that there is a lack of comprehensive, intelligible and accessible reference volumes on human rights methods. Consistent with the rapid growth of interdisciplinary academic research on human rights, this volume looks beyond disciplinary boundaries, drawing on research that moves across such boundaries.