(J. Paul Goode and Ariel I. Ahram, eds.) This special issue explores qualitative field work methods for observing and studying authoritarian regimes. Studying authoritarian regimes can be a difficult and dangerous task, and this issue asked the contributors to provide insight on how working under an authoritarian regime limited their research but also provided context. There are three articles in this special issue that would be of particular interest to those studying Euraisa.
"Researching Authoritarianism in the Discipline of Democracy" by Paul Goode and Ariel Ahram grapples with the challenges of adapting research methods used to study democracies to being suited for studying authoritarian regimes.
"Eyes Wide Shut: Democratic Reversals, Scientific Closure, and the Study of Politics in Eurasia" by Paul Goode examines the cycles within social science literature (pre-color revolution era) about defining the region as "democratizing" or "autocritizing" and the dangers of trying to make qualitative research more quantitative.
"Scientific Closure and Research Strategies in Uzbekistan" by Lawrence Markowitz provides Uzbekistan as case study of conducting research under an authoritarian regime and how his findings and experiences there may be applicable to studying other authoriatarian regimes.
Additional articles cover Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Rwanda, and China.
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