USING TIMELINE FOR THE STUDIES OF THE PROBLEMS OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN

Abstract

Securing of objective and unbiased approach in the studies of current social problems always was a matter of acute discussions in social sciences. Researcher’s involvement into ongoing phenomena, which are studied, as well as their dynamics undoubtedly impact all stages of the research process. That is absolutely just in the case of studies of such an extensive and traumatizing problem as the internal displacement of millions of people as a result of the war in the country. In our view, one of the possible solutions to the problem lays in a thorough selection of the methods of empirical data collection. They should meet both requirements: provide enough information on the studied phenomenon and, at the same time, reduce the researcher’s personal impact. In this respect, the research aims to test the timeline as the method to study changes in the everyday life of internally displaced women. The participants located their typical everyday activities on two timelines: one for their regular day at home, before relocation, and the other one for common activities in a host community, after displacement. The respondents were free to articulate, to assign, values for the variable. Data processing consisted of a few stages: establishment of actual differences between women’s everyday activities before and after the displacement (presence or absence of particular value/activity); counting the differences in time spent for particular activity before and after relocation; investigation of the relations between participant’s social and demographic characteristics and changes in their everyday activities. The author argues that the strengths of the timeline as a research method are connected to a lower level of the researcher’s impact and the possibility of learning an «authentic» life story of the respondents. Moreover, collected data are applicable for further mathematical analysis. Meanwhile, the weaknesses of the method are related to the researcher’s limited ability to understand the deep meaning and emotional content of the respondents’ language. Last but not least, it does not allow for locating the personal experience of the participants in a wider social context. To overcome the abovementioned limitations, the author suggests using the timeline in combination with other research methods