ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some epistemological and theoretical issues regarding the epistemologies and intellectual histories of research methods in racial/ethnic conflict studies. Methodologies are rooted in conceptual infrastructures is to admit to the fact that we can speak of theories of methods and the intellectual history of methods. By epistemologies, the unintentional and intentional consequences of methodologies being human experiences and thus embedded in autobiographies, moral standards, ethics, politics, and in the nature of society and community in particular historical moments. There are also ethical and political issues in methodological studies of racial/ethnic conflict stemming from the sensitivity of asking and responding to questions and the growing reluctance of culturally different people to allow dominant group researchers to probe deeply into their institutions and communities. There is also the problem of the crisis management mentality that obsesses most government and academic policy research.
