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

Delve into the challenges of researching sensitive topics like alcohol in African urban settings, exploring methods, ethics, and implications for policy development. Reflect on the complexities of conducting research on alcohol consumption in Cape Town.

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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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