ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the current state of research is deficient in two ways: first, in systematizing the different approaches of combining methods and, second, in identifying the operational challenges and opportunities held by each approach. The chapter offers analytical tools that help identify phenomena like hybridity, often neglected by other areas of security studies. It introduces the notion of hybridity and discusses the added-value that Actor Network Theory (ANT) provides for an analysis of hybrid phenomena. It differentiates between three sets of hybrids: action-centred hybrids, situational hybrids and institutional hybrids. Studies related to Science and Technology Studies (STS) and ANT provide analytical lenses for investigating hybrid phenomena. The framework presented here of linking the analytical lenses of zooms to research strategies for method parallelization and the analytical lens of connections to strategies of method triangulation seems far more capable of operationalizing the empirical research agenda of expanded security studies.
