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Researching Sensitive Topics in African Cities: Reflections on Alcohol Research in Cape Town

Researching Sensitive Topics in African Cities: Reflections on Alcohol Research in Cape Town . Mary Lawhon , Clare Herrick, Shari Daya 21 June 2012. Alcohol Control, Poverty and Development. Part of a multi-disciplinary research team Mostly geographers 

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Researching Sensitive Topics in African Cities: Reflections on Alcohol Research in Cape Town

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  1. Researching Sensitive Topics in African Cities: Reflections on Alcohol Research in Cape Town Mary Lawhon, Clare Herrick, Shari Daya 21 June 2012

  2. Alcohol Control, Poverty and Development • Part of a multi-disciplinary research team • Mostly geographers  • Interests in: health, transportation, urban metabolism, culture, ethnography, policy

  3. Alcohol research • Largely statistical, health based or economic measures • Policy focuses on alcohol control • Who, when, where to buy & drink • To regulate better, we need more than stats • Why is drinking sometimes a problem? • What kinds of research methods can show this?

  4. Researching sensitive topics • What is sensitive is contextual • The ‘everyday’ of many African urban residents is filled with sensitive topics • Violence, HIV/AIDS, crime, drugs, illegal economic activity, etc, etc • Sensitive research has particular challenges

  5. Pragmatics and ethics • Can’t just ask respondents directly about their drinking practices • Esp as (foreign) white, middle-class interviewers • While many “know” about illegal activities, limited incentive (and many disincentives) to “make legible” • Many emotive stories- impacts for respondents and researchers

  6. We used multiple… • Methods: interviews, participants obs, focus groups • Respondents: residents, industry, policy-makers, NGOs

  7. Participant observations • Presence of researcher changing behaviours • Participating in illegal activities (drinking in shebeens) • Safety of researchers • Hard to understand causation/correlations and what happens outside the pub/shebeen

  8. From focus groups… to unfocused groups • Needed to start from the beginning: • What do residents consider to be the key experiences associated with drinking? • Are these positive or negative? • When/why?

  9. Challenges with focus groups • Who should facilitate them? Participate in them? • Residents expected us to “want” certain answers • Educated YBM speaking English • Discomfort of OBW drinkers

  10. Interviews • Key informants re policy, industry, NGOs, etc • Small conversations on public transport • Laura’s work adding alcohol into existing research

  11. Challenges of interviews • Safety of researchers • Respondents very nervous and curious as to “agenda” of researcher, wanted proof of UCT affiliation • What to do when interviewees repeat “received wisdom”? • Dop system • Shebeens as site of all problems; liberation association • What is the role of researcher in pushing beyond these explanations?

  12. Putting it all together? • How to combine different method/methodologies? • Can’t really “triangulate” results as these are about individual and community experiences; no “right” and “wrong” • Can it be more than just description? • How to use this as foundation for policy and/or future research?

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