ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present the Parliamentary Elites in Latin America (PELA) project, led by Manuel Alcántara at the University of Salamanca. After more than 20 years of research by PELA, interviewing legislators (MPs) in the lower chambers of political representation in the different countries, this text emphasises the project’s methodology as well as its most important inputs and future challenges. Based on the experience of researchers from the project, the chapter’s aim is to rethink several issues (such as data mining) that arise during the research process, taking into account the wealth of available information (after two decades of development) and the particularities that parliamentary elites present as an object of study.
In this regard, questions are addressed related to both the methodological design and the challenges encountered throughout the project’s research phases, including data compilation during fieldwork and data processing, and their subsequent use for academic production.
