ABSTRACT
Tracy Saint Benoit, Clarissa Graffeo, Mark A. Carter, and Col. Richard Swisher (Ret)
ABSTRACT Many government and nongovernment organizations operate in distressed environments, from natural disaster sites to areas undergoing civil wars or insurgencies. Current, detailed understanding of the population and assessment of the effectiveness of humanitarian services are vital. However, traditional ethnographic methods are often unsuited to such environments. In this chapter, the authors introduce high-risk ethnography, a specialized research protocol for distressed populations and areas with a high risk of violence. The requirements, the concepts, the methods, and the team composition are summarized. Finally, a case study from a eld research in Afghanistan during 2007 is provided to illustrate the execution and the value of the methodology.
