Troubling masculinities: a feminist, relational approach to researching sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers

Abstract

This article reflects on my political and methodological choices around interviews and the empirical insights they have yielded into the causes and consequences of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). I explore a feminist, relational approach that pursues generative, collaborative discussions with interlocutors during which inquiry and analysis are co-developed. I discuss how this approach created better spaces for collaborative dialogue and meaning-making with my interlocutors and set foundations for a relational analysis by allowing me to hear the discordant perspectives of institutions and local communities about the causes, consequences and experiences of SEA. I outline two empirical arguments this approach generated, to illustrate the method and its outcomes, and show that listening for how people experience the structures and power of peacekeeping generates robust analysis and can ground a dynamic relationship between researchers, communities and institutions which can be a valuable mechanism for challenging institutional preferences for instrumental analyses.