Methods and Sources In the Study of the Military: An Exercise In Self-Reflection

The purpose of this session is to reflect on the conditions that enable research on the military institution. It is an exercise in self-reflection that starts with the understanding that the results of research on the military are constructed through social interaction between the researcher and various individuals – whether “natives” (military personnel) or intermediaries in accessing “sources.” This reflection can be done through dialogue with specific, concrete research experiences carried out by various researchers, ranging from incursions into military archives to field research, including oral history interviews, documentary research, and the use of questionnaires. The focal point of interest in this session is not the substantive results of the research, but the methodological procedures, the sources used, and the conditions under which the research was conducted. This proposal continues the series of sessions proposed and coordinated by Celso Castro and Helena Carreiras since the World Congress held in Gothenburg in 2010, which resulted in the books “Qualitative Methods in Military Studies: Research Experiences and Challenges” (2013) and “Researching the Military” (2017), both published by Routledge.