Las tarifas de las empresas y los subsidios indiscriminados

Engaging in qualitative research meant that I was an integral part of the research process through my physical presence in the research sites (Gibbs 2007). This highlights the importance of being reflective on how my background, experiences and preferences influence the research process (Gibbs 2007). Furthermore, the sited and multi-positional nature of the research required adaptability to diverse situations, and deal with cross-cutting and contradictory commitments (Marcus 1995; Mosse 2005). This means that I had to attend to my positionality as a European woman in Madagascar and the proximity of the research subject to my (previous) professional work. Moreover, ethical considerations are related to the conduct of qualitative research and the political nature of tenure questions. Their investigations could have revived latent or existing conflicts, especially in the context of an on-going policy process. In the next sections, I elaborate on the research ethics, positionality and overall challenges encountered.

3.4.1. Ethics

I received ethical approval for the research from the International Development Research Ethics Committee of UEA in February 2015 prior to starting data collection. I followed the ethical procedures described in the application throughout the research.

I conducted research in an independent manner in Madagascar. My main institutional contacts were the coordination unit of the PNF (national level), region of Vakinakaratra (regional level) and the local land office (Ankazomiriotra), who all accepted my presence and were regularly updated on the research progress. However, I did not establish formal institutional agreements with them nor seek an official research permit for several reasons. Institutional arrangements would have been complex to set up, as clear practices of requesting research permits for social sciences did not exist in

81

Madagascar, and other researchers based in the United Kingdom or France have regularly worked without these.

Prior to starting data collection in Madagascar, I met with the key institutional contacts and fokontany chiefs, prepared an introductory letter and a description of my research, and translated consent forms into French and Malagasy. I started the interviews by explaining why I would like to talk to people, presenting the research, asking for written or oral consent and seeking their approval to record the interview. I explained to the interviewees that the discussions are voluntary, confidential and anonymous. I also highlighted that they do not need to answer all questions if they find them uncomfortable and they can stop the interview at any moment or withdraw from the research until the write-up stage. I provided the interviewees with my contact details or explained to local people how they could reach me. I decided to offer a bar of soap (value 500 Ariary¹⁴) to the interviewed farmers and monetary compensation (3000 Ariary) to each participant in the focus group at the end of each discussion. I did not offer anything to other local or national- and global-level actors, as meeting researchers is one of their professional responsibilities.

I kept the interviews short if I observed that people participated solely out of courtesy and felt uncomfortable during the discussion. While I aimed to conduct individual interviews, this was almost impossible at the local level. In most cases, other family members attended the interviews, neighbours followed them from a distance (e.g. from windows or from around the corner), and children were constantly running around.

There could be some thirty people in the room, with several of them (women and men alike) contributing to the discussion. This posed, of course, concerns in terms of confidentiality, and so I steered the discussions towards more general debates on tenure issues, inviting everyone to participate rather than asking for personal details.

Overall, respect for confidentiality and anonymity was a key concern for myself and Hoby. During interviews, I refrained from exposing points stemming from earlier discussions or referring to the views of other people. I recorded the interviews and took

14 One euro (main foreign currency used in Madagascar) was around 3400 to 3600 Ariary in 2016 and 2017. A soap bar of 500 Ariary would then be around 15 Euro cents. As a comparison, the daily salary of an agricultural employee is 1500-3000 Ariary.

82

notes without marking down the name and affiliation of the person, and instead created a parallel coding system. Furthermore, I do not name people, the six target villages or the three fokontanys in this research. I rather identify people based on a rough group of actors with which they are associated. I also refrain from exposing details that could be easily traced back to the source of information or person described. Corson (2016) adopted a similar strategy in a study of the political economy of the conservation sector in Madagascar. She noted downplaying the roles of key individuals, identifying them by a general position. However, considering the limited number of national and global players interviewed, and the focal roles some of them have played in the policy process, it is almost impossible to achieve complete anonymity, as someone who has knowledge of the setting would be able to trace back to the right person.

3.4.2. Positionality

When conducting qualitative research, my values, views and background play out in how I perceive social realities and the environment, but also how the social actors with whom I interact see me. This in turn influences the production of knowledge. The question of positionality is diverse in my research, due to its multi-sited and multi-level nature. Being a European female in my mid-thirties with a previous professional background from FAO played out differently in each site. Therefore, I have been reflecting on my own actions and role in the research process (see Mason 2002).

Especially in terms of interviews, I recognise that their interactional form has influenced the accounts of the interviewees (Elliott 2005).

3.4.2.1. Global and national level

At the global level and with national players in Madagascar, I had to distinguish between my former professional identity as a FAO officer and my position as an independent researcher. This was a concern when interviewing former colleagues and collaborators.

I had previously established trusting relationships with them and could more easily address the challenges linked to the policy. Yet, I had apprehensions about interviewing people I knew, wary of the possible attitudes they might have towards my research topic.

I was also careful not to put the interviewees in a delicate position where they would expose confidential information. To counter such risks, I clearly explained the objectives

83

of the research and my role as researcher. Most of the interviews were relaxed, with free-flowing conversation. On one occasion only, my role as a researcher froze the interviewee, who adopted an institutional position in comparison to more collegial exchanges that we are used to have.

With new encounters, I had more trouble accessing ‘inside information’. I was concerned whether higher level officials would take a younger female researcher seriously and share meaningful pieces of information, but also I had to ensure that my European background did not inspire a perception of wealth and power in the Malagasy context and thus create unnecessary imbalances in the interview situation. In general, examining a policy process as an outsider is demanding. I say this from a position in which I have been an insider of the development and implementation processes of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure while working in FAO and now an outsider of the Malagasy land policy process. There is a significant difference in terms of access to information as a researcher compared to someone playing an institutional role. When these ‘institutional aids’ don’t exist, it demands more effort from the researcher to build up relations and networks. I find that this is possible only in the long term when trust has been built on both sides, requires a constant presence in the policy settings (difficult for a researcher due to time and resource constraints) and involves unofficial, personal encounters as well. Finally, it is important to note that the accounts presented here are the views of interviewees at a certain point in time. Also, while many of the aspects presented are widely acknowledged, they have been written down only rarely. Consequently, there is a risk that some people feel uncomfortable with the results or could contest them (Mosse 2005). It has thus been important for me to conduct the research in a rigorous manner, formulating solid arguments and grounding the research theoretically.

Against this background, I recognise that the results are my interpretation of multiple existing realities. Following Corson (2016), I do not aim to critique the policy nor its key individuals ‘but to reveal the complex processes through which policy actions transpire’ (p.28). Therefore, the research should not be read as a singular evaluation of the policy, nor as a prognostication on its future. It is a piece of work that argues that the policy process has challenges and is affected by power dynamics. It explains the complex positions of policy actors who use similar mechanisms of power to establish

84

and maintain their ideas and practices. If I take a stance towards one group of actors over another, it is the people of Ankazomiriotra and the most vulnerable among them. It is from their point of view that any judgements are made.

3.4.2.2. Local level

In Ankazomiriotra, both I and Hoby were outsiders to the local context. We were perceived as the vazaha and the gasy – the foreigner and the Malagasy. We introduced ourselves as students, willing to learn from people’s experience of agriculture, land tenure and rural development. Introducing ourselves as researchers could have created suspicion (e.g. that we are looking for land). On several occasions, we had to clarify our positionality and correct misapprehensions. In fact, at times people thought we were on an awareness-raising mission or undertaking small scale development activities that could directly benefit the interviewees.

We started the overall research gently by meeting key informants, hanging around in the centre of Ankazomiriotra and walking around the countryside. Little by little, people started to recognise us. As we conducted research in six villages, more time would have been required to approach these spaces gradually and meet people first in informal settings. Because of time constraints, we started interviews after meeting the chiefs of fokontanys and the elders and visited each village once or twice. This meant that some interviewees were still surprised to see us. Most people became more accustomed to our presence when they saw us returning to the same place a couple of months later.

Power imbalances were omnipresent in the interviews with farmers. It came up as a difficulty in building up a meaningful dialogue, especially with younger people and women. Most of the farmers would not look me into the eye, but preferred to talk to Hoby. To mitigate these challenges, we dressed and acted in a modest way, accepted any hospitality shown by people, conducted interviews in spaces where we met people and refrained having any papers in view. We placed the recorder discreetly, talked with calm and soft voices, remained relaxed, and physically placed ourselves at the level of the interviewees (e.g. if they sat on the floor, we sat on the floor as well). Yet, asking for consent before an interview, even if oral, brought formality to the interaction and sometimes froze a social exchange that had otherwise been smooth.

85

During our stays in Ankazomiriotra we strived to keep cordial relations with everyone, not getting involved in local dynamics and community politics. Keeping such distance was easy, as we did not lodge in the villages where we conducted research and were thus not associated with a certain family or group. However, we were actively related to the employees of the local land office and the chiefs of fokontanys. These apparent contacts might have influenced the narratives of some interviewees (e.g. some farmers were determined to demonstrate their knowledge of the processes).

3.4.3. Practical and personal challenges

The nature and the context of the research have represented some challenges. It is demanding to conduct research in new cultural settings, in three languages and relying on assistance. I felt at ease with the global-level players as I could relate to them; and with national players, I could converse in French and manage the dynamisms of the interaction by playing with words, changing my tone of voice and following the dynamisms set by the interviewee. Locally, I relied on assistance, without which the research would not have been possible. Thus, it was challenging to establish a certain proximity with the interviewees through the translator and pass messages from one language to another. I am aware that details are lost in translation. Also, I had to manage relations with Hoby and consider her influence on the interviews. Moreover, the security situation in some villages was poor in June and July 2016. During one interview, the village was on alert against the Dahalos, who attacked the village the following day. Our host village was also under a nightly alert, meaning that life in the village stopped from 5pm to 6am.

Secondly, I have actively used English and French, and relied on Malagasy language assistance during the research process. This has implication for the written form of the research. I have chosen to use French abbreviations and wordings of technical terms when these are used in relation to the Malagasy land policy. Indeed, Malagasy land policy, laws and programmes were initially written in French. Many of these French terms (e.g. petits papiers) are used in francophone literature and circles to refer to the Malagasy case. I use Malagasy words (e.g. tanety, meaning hillside land) when their use is current in Anglophone and francophone literature, and direct translation more complex.

86

Thirdly, my own state of mind has impacted the research. At the beginning of my stay in Madagascar, I went through major set-backs in my personal life that remained unresolved for over six months. I was forced to change my initial fieldwork plans and my ability to work, think clearly and take decisions were also affected. While the fieldwork provided a distraction from personal issues, I conducted it under major emotional stress. This experience thought to me how our research projects and personal lives are intrinsically linked to one another.

3.5. Conclusion

The research examines concepts of tenure security, practices of securing tenure and interaction between actors in the context of the Malagasy land policy process. By relying on the concepts of policy narratives, assemblages and power, I highlight factors and mechanisms that have influenced the consideration of tenure security in the policy process. To go about the research, I have adopted a nested approach where research has been conducted with global, national and local actors involved in the policy process from its beginning to its consolidation in 2015. I have collected data through observation, event ethnography, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The data has been analysed by paying attention to the narratives of actors, seeking answers to the thematic questions and investigated in view of the key concepts.

In this chapter, I have exposed the research background, methodologies, methods, analysis and ethics. This helps understanding the logic of the research and the subsequent empirical chapters. In the next chapter, I introduce the context of the Malagasy land policy in more detail.

87