DERECHO A LA INTEGRIDAD PERSONAL

The research setting of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina affects data

collection, as there are context-specific obstacles that make qualitative methods in the country – and especially in Sarajevo – more difficult than in other settings. To begin with, it is often quite difficult to request and receive an interview simply by emailing a potential interviewee. More often than not, if you are even able to find the contact’s email, he or she will not respond to your enquiry for an interview. Getting the email itself may also prove difficult. Many times, people from Bosnia and Herzegovina prefer to call one another instead of communicating by email. This poses the problem that it requires Bosnian language skills developed enough to be able to communicate

effectively by telephone. Even though my own language skills are sufficient enough for this task, Bosnians often schedule their days at the last minute, and so I received responses such as, ‘call me tomorrow and we’ll arrange something,’ or ‘let me get back to you tomorrow to see if I have time’. This type of response can be quite frustrating when trying to arrange a time to chat. Additionally, one potential interviewee simply stopped responding to me while others never managed to find the time to speak. Many of these problems boil down to differences in culture between the locals and

researchers. As an American, I am relatively forthright and persistent, which can be seen as a bit forceful in BiH.

A greater problem than simply the means of communication and scheduling is that in BiH, and especially in Sarajevo, accessing people in the first place can be quite difficult and frustrating. While it is not the case for all interviewees, more often than not, access requires contacts and sometimes contacts of contacts. I realised early on in my fieldwork that access in Sarajevo was a potential problem for me, and I continually cast my net as wide as possible to find people who knew stake holders and other individuals engaged in the development of the city. I count myself lucky to have had a pre-

I spent three summers in Sarajevo before research began in order to take Bosnian language classes, conduct research for my Masters dissertation and carry out an internship. This network assisted me myriad times over the course of the year, and it became clear that it was truly an invaluable asset when conducting on-site research in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In most cases when trying to gain access to an individual, I pointedly asked friends, colleagues and other professional contacts whether they had the contact information to specific people and whether they would be willing to

introduce me virtually or otherwise. In some instances, I had to go through two or three channels to arrive at a contact I was seeking, and for one important contact, I only gained access days before leaving the country. Being recommended to a potential interviewee in the city opens doors that are otherwise very difficult to unlock, and while this may be true in other research settings as well, it seems to be the unwritten rule in Sarajevo.

Apart from accessing various actors and stakeholders, Sarajevo as a setting is difficult for qualitative research because of its status as a post-conflict and post-

socialist city, which suffers from many of the ills of post-socialist and post-conflict environments, including corruption and distrust. Suspicion became a major factor for me when working amongst the Bosnians living in Sarajevo, and it weighed heavily upon me as a researcher. I had often encountered problems of suspicion in Sarajevo before commencing my fieldwork; I cannot count the number of times someone in Sarajevo jokingly (or not so jokingly) accused me of being a spy, for example. However, it was only once I started doing interviews with members of the academic and intellectual architectural and urban planning community in Sarajevo that I confronted this suspicion in a more head-on fashion. In fact, one contact of mine explained to me that:

It would be also fantastic to try to bring your UCL people and resources here as it would be interesting to discuss with them about collaborations

as there was a lot of foreign researchers and architects around and not much was left to/for Sarajevo. I think you can surely contribute! [sic] This suspicion of foreigners – and of foreign researchers – is pervasive in the city. Another contact of mine spoke somewhat derisively of one of my colleagues hailing from Western Europe, especially in that he was ‘another foreign researcher’. It is understandable how the intellectual and academic communities in Sarajevo may feel threatened by foreign researchers coming to study not only their city but also their society. Added to that is the fact that foreign researchers are winning grants and studentships to research themes that Bosnians feel very strongly about or would like to study themselves, given the means. They feel – according to chats I have had with Bosnian friends and colleagues – that Bosnians are left to the side and isolated when it comes to opportunities to work abroad or contribute to more international programs regarding research and professional development. To counter this, I did try to offer what I could to my contacts in terms of access to literature. I also discussed co-

authoring papers or presenting at conferences, but these plans never came to fruition. This suspicion of foreigners seems deeply ingrained in BiH society, possibly originating in the failures and missteps of the international community during the conflict and after. In fact, the 'Monument to the international community, from the grateful citizens of Sarajevo’ which is a statue of a tin of beef, representing those given to the starving citizens during the siege, cements in the built environment the attitude of the citizens to the international community (see Sheftel, 2012 for an analysis of Bosnians’ dark humour, especially directed at the failures of the international community). Conducting qualitative research in Sarajevo as an American PhD student thus requires not only a very thick skin, but also the ability to empathise with the frustrations of the local community. Unfortunately, I only came to this understanding toward the end of my research, and I feel that some of my relationships with various contacts suffered for my previous ignorance.

In terms of distrust, people are also reluctant to speak frankly about political motivations behind investments or political forces at play behind different processes in the city. I had a number of interesting interactions with Bosnians as I was conducting my field interviews and inhabiting public and quasi-public spaces. It is important to note that my interviewees were all made aware that their answers were anonymous, but that I needed to record them for data collection purposes (my research assistant discussed this with them in the local language). One woman working in a shopping centre in Sarajevo asked to see my list of questions before agreeing to the interview. When she read the questions, she became visibly agitated, and stated (in very clear English, although we had been speaking in Bosnian) that she refused to answer any of the questions or take part in the interview. She then proceeded to follow us out of her shop, and she watched us walk away in a clear act of intimidation. Her reaction was

alarmingly aggressive, and clearly she felt threatened by my presence as a foreigner asking questions related to Islam and investment in Sarajevo. Unfortunately we never asked her to clarify her reaction, and we felt too intimidated to approach her again. Other people also refused to be recorded or participate in the field interviews, and in many instances it seemed as if they were protecting themselves from an unknown danger. As a post-socialist and post-conflict city dealing with ingrained corruption, it is possible that feelings of distrust toward the politicians and elites flows over into other areas of life, causing fear amongst the people. While this is an understandable reaction by the citizens, it makes conducting qualitative research in the city that much more difficult, especially for foreigners.

As an American researcher in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is important to keep my positionality in mind. My cultural background, values and biases inevitably influence the outcome of my results, especially considering the vast difference between US and BiH worldviews. I am aware that my background may lead to judgements and

considering this potential problem, I hope I have been able to avoid such inherent biases as much as possible. I also realise that my cultural background and position of privilege in terms of my nationality, age and education level may have influenced the responses that I received from interview participants. These power relations probably played a part in how willing respondents were to give me information. Marsha Henry, Paul Higate and Gurchathen Sanghera (2009) suggest that the researcher and the power relations between researcher and researchee ‘may be read in multiple and paradoxical ways’ (477), making for complex and challenging research. Being aware of the power relationships taking place during the fieldwork is the first step to dealing with any negative consequences arising from them.

Within the environment of pervasive distrust in Sarajevo, I found it necessary at times to downplay my exact interests in order to reduce suspicion. I believe levels of suspicion might have been augmented as I study Muslim buildings and financing from Muslim-majority countries in the city – a touchy subject in today’s globalised and securitised world. When conducting interviews, I tried to limit the details of my research and explain that I am focusing on urban processes and urbanisation in Sarajevo. I also tried to downplay the focus on Islam and specifically Arab financing while I was

conducting my fieldwork, but this sometimes came through despite my efforts. The woman who refused to speak to us in one of the shopping centres became agitated after my research assistant mentioned ‘Arab investment’ instead of the more neutral ‘foreign investment’, which I believe led her to aggressively decline the interview.

On a more personal note, while conducting my fieldwork in Sarajevo, I came to know a number of Arabs living in the city, specifically from Syria and Libya. Having Arab friends living in Bosnia and being able to ask them questions about how welcome they feel in the country definitely gave me a broader understanding of the processes at work. I also think these friendships opened my mind and changed my perceptions of not only Arabs and the Arab world, but also of Islam in general. I believe my research

benefitted substantially from these relationships, giving me a different perspective and allowing me to see multiple viewpoints of transnational flows of people, capital and goods.