Meditating on Methods

Thucydides’ different approaches to the concept of fear provide us with a better grasp of how we can operationalize it across a wide set of case studies. Located in six countries where I undertook fieldwork, the depth of the analytical framework extends to a set of comparative stories which inform us about the fallout resulting from distinguishable notions of fear that arise in Western-positioned states, that is, if we agree that in-migration to western parts of Russia qualifies as a Western phenomenon.

Admittedly, coupling Thucydides’ classification with culturally dissimilar countries may have a hit-or-miss character to it. For example, it would be possible for orrodia, a rhetorical device, to be applied to all the six cases examined. However, choosing only Russia's President as rhetorician-in-chief singles out its explanatory breath. Identifying six different terms to ferret out supporting evidence for the types of fear characteristic of a country is a plausible paradigm that augurs in best practices and optimizing analyses.

Ben Judah's book This Is London begins with a fine-tuned understanding of what method he will be using before he plunges into micro-analyses of the roads and rail stations and street corners of London on the eve of the Brexit referendum: “I have to see everything for myself. I don't trust statistics. I don't trust columnists. I don't trust self-appointed spokesmen. I have to make up my own mind. This is why I am shivering again, in Victoria Coach Station, at 6 am.” This method comprises, paradoxically, an ideal-type framework for conducting empirical research. It is admirable that Judah flaunts his brass-knuckles approach when digging for empirics.

For my part, an obligation presented itself to investigate surveys and their inferences in addition to examining self-appointed rhetoricians and the inner workings of angst so as to unsheathe latent and manifest explanatory variables. All manner of data was included in the mix: interpretations of opinion polls and of election results; inferences drawn from policy debates and political rhetoric; and analyses of one-sided biased opinion and editorial commentaries. An asymmetrical investigation across case studies is advantageous so long as the dependent variable—political fear—remains constant.

Nevertheless, there are a host of appropriate questions to ask about research outcomes. One is whether a country is more fear-fixated than another; Russia's history and real-time quandary come to mind.