Research Methods in Critical Security Studies, 2nd Edition

39 Unlearning research methodsStories of attunement and failure

Debbie Lisle

DOI: 10.4324/9781003108016-45

The Big Lie: forget what they teach you in research methods training

I have absolutely no business talking about research methods in International Relations (IR), security studies or any other field. I had a grand total of 90 minutes of official ‘Research Methods Training’ during my PhD which I completed last century. I don’t remember much of the afternoon, except sitting at the back with my friend Martin Coward, and drawing doodles on our notepads (which were paper, by the way, because back then laptops had to be physically wired to the internet via a giant yellow cable). I think someone from Philosophy talked about the scientific ...