Abstracts
Résumé
Malgré un débat académique qui offre un cadre conceptuel riche quant aux influences de certains acteurs internationaux sur la scène nationale, les chercheurs éprouvent des difficultés méthodologiques quand il s’agit d’étudier qualitativement l’impact des influences externes dans une transition démocratique. Ces enjeux sont plus marqués lorsque la recherche cible un pays du monde arabo-musulman. L’identification des acteurs impliqués, l’accès aux informateurs, les biais d’interaction lors des entretiens et le positionnement du chercheur par rapport à un sujet complexe constituent quelques-uns des obstacles rencontrés. Comment, alors, mener une étude sur le contexte international d’une transition démocratique dans le monde arabe? En s’appuyant sur les expériences de recherche de l’auteur sur le terrain en Tunisie, cet article propose diverses stratégies susceptibles d’augmenter les chances de réussite d’une enquête qualitative sur l’impact des influences externes dans un processus de démocratisation d’un pays du monde arabe.
Mots-clés :
- Recherche qualitative,
- terrain exploratoire,
- triangulation des données,
- boule de neige,
- transition démocratique tunisienne
Abstract
Despite an academic debate offering a rich conceptual framework for the influences of certain international players on the national scene, researchers faced methodological difficulties in studying qualitatively the impact of external influences in a transition to democracy. The issues are even more apparent when the research targets a country in the Arab-Moslem world. Identifying the players involved, access to informants, interaction bias during meetings and the position of the researcher in relation to a complex subject are a few of the obstacles encountered. How then should one study the international context of a transition to democracy in the Arab world? Based on the author’s experiences with field research, this article suggests various strategies likely to increase the chances for success of a qualitative study of the impact of outside influences on the process of introducing democracy to a country in the Arab world such as Tunisia.
Keywords:
- Qualitative research,
- preliminary fieldwork,
- data triangulation,
- snowballing sample,
- tunisian democratic transition
Appendices
Références
- Aberbach, J. D., & Rockman, B. A. (2002). Conducting and coding elite interviews. PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 673-676.
- Allal, A., & Geisser, V. (2018). Tunisie. Une démocratisation au-dessus de tout soupçon? Paris : CNRS.
- Anderson, L. (2011). Demystifying the Arab spring: Parsing the differences between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Foreign Affairs, 90(3), 2-7.
- Berry, J. M. (2002). Validity and reliability issues in elite interviewing. PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 679-682.
- Breuer, A., Landman, T., & Farquhar, D. (2015). Social media and protest mobilization : Evidence from the Tunisian revolution. Democratization, 22(4), 764-792.
- Caine, K. J., Davison, C. M., & Stewart, E. J. (2009). Preliminary field-work : Methodological reflections from northern Canadian research. Qualitative research, 9(4), 489-513.
- Carrier, J. (2006). Fieldwork on UrbanMale homosexuality in Mexico. Dans D. Hobbs, & R.Wright (Éds), The Sage handbook of fieldwork (pp. 171-185). Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage.
- Cavatorta, F. (2009). Democracy betrayed? The international dimension of the failed Algerian transition. Manchester : Manchester University Press
- Cavatorta, F., & Merone, F. (2013). Moderation through exclusion? The journey of the Tunisian Ennahda from fundamentalist to conservative party. Democratization, 20(5), 857-875.
- Clark, J. A. (2018). Interviewing : lessons learned. Dans J. A. Clark, & F. Cavatorta (Éds), Political science research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and ethical challenges (pp. 109-122). Oxford : Oxford University Press.
- Clark, J. A., & Cavatorta, F. (Éds). (2018). Political science research in the Middle East and North Africa : Methodological and ethical challenges. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
- Cohen, N., & Arieli, T. (2011). Field research in conflict environments: Methodological challenges and snowball sampling. Journal of Peace Research, 48(4), 423-435.
- Diamond, L., & Linz, J. (1989). Introduction : Politics, society, and democracy in Latin America. Dans L. Diamond, J. Linz, & M. Lipset (Éds), Democracy in developing countries: Latin America (pp. 1-59). Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner.
- Douglas, A. (1994). Recontextualizing schooling within an Inuit community. Canadian Journal of Education, 19(2), 154-164.
- Flick, U. (2002). An introduction to qualitative research (2e éd.). London : Sage Publications.
- Glasius, M., De Lange, M., Bartman, J., Dalmasso, E., Lv, A., Del Sordi, A., & Ruijgrok, K. (2017). Research, ethics and risk in the authoritarian field. Berlin : Springer.
- Hoffmann, K. (2014). Caught between apprehension and comprehension : Dilemmas of immersion in a conflict setting. DIIS Working Paper 2014 :09. Repéré à https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/186271/wp_2014-09.pdf
- Huntington, S. P. (1993). The third wave : Democratization in the late twentieth century (Vol. 4). Norman, OK : University of Oklahoma Press.
- Kaldor, M. (2011). Civil society in 1989 and 2011. Open Democracy. Repéré à https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/civil-society-in-1989-and-2011/
- Kapiszewski, D., MacLean, L. M., & Benjamin, L. R. (2015). Field Research in Political Science. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Katzenstein, P. J., & Keohane, R. O. (Éds). (2007). Anti-Americanisms in world politics. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press.
- Levitsky, S., & Way, L. A. (2010). Competitive authoritarianism : Hybrid regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Lewis, D., & Mosse, D. (2006). Development brokers and translators : The ethnography of aid and agencies. Bloomfield, CT : Kumarian Press.
- Jamal, A. (2007). When is social trust a desirable outcome? Examining levels of trust in the Arab world. Comparative Political Studies, 40(11), 1328-1349.
- Mainwaring, S., & Pérez-Liñán, A. (2013). Democracies and dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, survival, and fall. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Marpsat, M., & Razafindratsima, N. (2010). Les méthodes d’enquêtes auprès des populations difficiles à joindre : introduction au numéro spécial. Methodological Innovations Online, 5(2), 3-16.
- Martin, A. P. (2015). Do Tunisian secular civil society organizations demonstrate a process of democratic learning? The Journal of North African Studies, 20(5), 797-812.
- Marzo, P. (2019a). International democracy promoters and transitional elites: Favourable conditions for successful partnership. Evidence from Tunisia’s democratization. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1-23. Repéré à https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2019.1636765
- Marzo, P. (2019b). Supporting political debate while building patterns of trust : The role of the German political foundations in Tunisia (1989-2017). Middle Eastern Studies, 55(4), 621-637.
- Mekouar, M. (2014). No political agents, no diffusion : Evidence from North Africa. International Studies Review, 16(2), 206-216.
- Mosley, L. (2015). Interview research in political science. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press.
- M’rad, H. (2015). Le dialogue national en Tunisie : Prix Nobel de la Paix 2015. Tunis : Éditions Nirvana.
- Murphy, E. C. (2013). The Tunisian elections of October 2011 : A democratic consensus. The Journal of North African Studies, 18(2), 231-247.
- Nachi, M. (2017). Révolution et compromis. Invention d’une solution aux incertitudes de la transition démocratique. Paris : Nirvan.
- Pevehouse, J. C. (2005). Democracy from above : Regional organizations and democratization. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Savoie-Zajc, L. (2009). L’entrevue semi-dirigée. Dans B. Gauthier (Éd.), Recherche sociale : de la problématique à la collecte des données (5e éd., pp. 337-360). Québec : Presses de l’Université du Québec.
- Schiltz, J., & Büscher, K. (2018). Brokering research with war-affected people : The tense relationship between opportunities and ethics. Ethnography, 19(1), 124-146.
- Schmitter, P. C. (1996). The influence of the international context upon the choice of national institutions and policies in neo-democracies. Dans L. Whitehead (Éd.), The international dimensions of democratization : Europe and the America (pp. 26-54). Oxford : Oxford University Press.
- Scoggins, S. E. (2014). Navigating fieldwork as an outsider : Observations from interviewing police officers in China. PS: Political Science & Politics, 47(2), 394-397.
- Tansey, O. (2007). Process tracing and elite interviewing : A case for non-probability sampling. PS: Political Science & Politics, 40(4), 765-772.
- Tessler, M. A. (2011). Public opinion in the Middle East : Survey research and the political orientations of ordinary citizens. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press.
- Tessler, M., & Jamal, A. (2006). Political attitude research in the Arab world : Emerging opportunities. PS: Political Science & Politics, 39(3), 433-437.
- Van Meter, K. M. (1990). Methodological and design issues : Techniques for assessing the representatives of snowball samples. NIDA Research Monograph, 98, 31-43.
- Whitehead, L. (Éd.). (1996). The international dimensions of democratization : Europe and the Americas. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
- Wilson, V. (2014). Research methods : Triangulation. Evidence based library and information practice, 9(1), 74-75.
- Yilmaz, H. (2002). External-internal linkages in democratization : Developing an open model of democratic change. Democratization, 9(2), 67-84.