Merry, Sally Engle --- "The potential of ethnographic methods for human rights research" [2017] ELECD 713; in Andreassen, A. Bård; Sano, Hans-Otto; McInerney-Lankford, Siobhán (eds), "Research Methods in Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 141

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 7

Section Title: The potential of ethnographic methods for human rights research

Author(s): Merry, Sally Engle

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

Human rights documentation frequently relies on reports of individual cases and situations. Although there is a tendency to dismiss such narratives as ‘anecdotal’ and unreliable, it is essential to examine local-level ideas, experiences and practices to assess the effects of human rights. This chapter discusses ways of paying attention to the use of human rights language, to practices of activism and network creation among advocates working on different issues, and to the conditions under which individuals adopt a sense of self that includes the entitlements and rights offered in the human rights system which provide such qualitative knowledge of human rights practice.