The politics of methods in transitional justice knowledge production

Abstract

Abstract This article is concerned with how practices of knowledge production relate to the international politics of transitional justice (TJ). It argues that quantitative scholarly studies—called for in response to the anecdotal and normative studies that prevailed in early TJ scholarship and which, it is argued, continue to shape TJ sub-fields such as the study of local justice—are themselves committed to the normative framework and the goals of TJ that they seek to provide the tools to challenge. Applying a ‘politics of methods’ lens, the article foregrounds the interpretive work of surveys and the methodological choices of large-N impact studies which circle these works back to narrowly defined ideas of what TJ ought to be. The conclusions show how these ‘politics of methods’ contribute to the decontestation of an inherently political choice and practice, and predetermine what policy and practice options are considered useful, relevant and even imaginable. As such they shape that which they claim only to examine. Contributing to both critical methodological debates in International Relations and nascent scholarship on the research–policy–practice nexus in TJ, the analysis provides an under-examined example of the co-constitutive relationship of what is considered to be detached knowledge production and politics.