Qualitative field research in the time of COVID-19: The nuances of peer research methods

Qualitative field research in the time of COVID-19: The nuances of peer research methods

Published Jan 2021

Authors

F. Hossain, S. Ahmed

Publisher

Focus themes

Focus countries

In collaboration with

Open full report

COVID-19 is forcing us to discover alternative ways of doing things; qualitative field research, which traditionally calls for close interaction between researchers and their populations of interest, had to be reimagined to satisfy the need for social distancing, a preventative measure against the virus. Just before the pandemic, a serious researcher would rarely consider the account of someone belonging to the population of interest, i.e. a community researcher, as the principal source of data.

  1. How good is this research?

    Assessing the quality of research can be a tricky business. This blog from our editor offers some tools and tips.

    Read now

Related website content

  • News

    Contribute to emerging discussions on social protection in crises

    07 Jun 2022: Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research is collaborating with socialprotection.org throughout June to deliver an interactive e-discussion series on delivering social assistance in crises contexts.
  • Collection

    Covid Collective

    05 May 2021: The Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis requiring rapid generation of policy-relevant evidence to inform decision-making as we move from crisis to recovery phase and beyond.
  • News

    Global investment, local struggles

    17 Mar 2020: Following the global commodities boom, investment has poured into large-scale extractive, green energy and other resource development projects around the world. Many of these are in the rural margins – places geographically but also politically distant from the centres of economic power.In many places, tensions, struggles and conflicts have arisen around land ‘grabs’, compensation mechanisms, contracts and work opportunities, as well as environmental damage and social changes associated with large-scale resource developments.

Related content

  • Document

    Impact of COVID-19 on RMG Sector: The False Narrative

    Fairooz Subaita / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
    The ready-made garments (RMG) sector is by far the most important contributor to the economy of the country, amounting to 15 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employing nearly four million people. There is no denying that the main driving force behind the RMG sector is the vast quantity of workers that it employs.
  • Document

    Challenges and Prospects of Youth Employment in the Post-COVID Scenario

    , , / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2021
    Public health measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 have caused massive shocks to the global economy and all aspects of human lives. The pandemic is disproportionately affecting the youths, particularly in countries like Bangladesh where youths already struggle in the labour market because of limited experience and skills and with poor quality of education (World Bank, 2019).
  • Document

    Resilience of the ultra-poor people in the face of COVID-19

    L. Whitehead / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2020
    The health shocks brought on by the spread of COVID-19, coupled with the economic crisis wrought by global lockdown measures, have had an immediate and severe impact on the state of extreme poverty. The scale of the crisis means widening numbers of people are experiencing vulnerability and financial insecurity, and risk falling further into the trap of extreme poverty.
  • Document

    Impact of COVID-19 on small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

    A. Islam, A. Rahman, R. Nisat / BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2020
    Like other economic players, the novel pandemic severely hit small businesses—the larger source of growth and employment but also the most vulnerable sector—by disrupting national and international business networks, supply chain, and demand.
More like this