The Problem of Access: Site Visits, Selective Disclosure, and Freedom of Information in Qualitative Security Research

Belcher, O; Martin, L

Abstract

This chapter addresses in relation to secrecy and methods is how to examine these “postsecret” places by using a wide range of data sources, some of which may be considered unorthodox by traditional social scientific standards. It offers some guidelines regarding how one might go about conducting research on secret sites. The chapter looks at the outset that not every formerly secret site would qualify as postsecret. It discusses the idea of postsecrecy and this idea through a short mapping of Orford Ness. During the Cold War, Orford Ness was a key testing ground for Britain’s Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and home of the elusive Anglo-American radar intelligence operation known as Cobra Mist. The idea of postsecrecy builds on an important in secrecy research that questions the standard and sometimes cliched binaries by which secrecy has usually been understood, such as secrecy vs publicity, visibility vs invisibility, open vs closed.

Citation

Belcher, O., & Martin, L. (2019). The Problem of Access: Site Visits, Selective Disclosure, and Freedom of Information in Qualitative Security Research. In M. de Goede, E. Bosma, & P. Pallister-Wilkins (Eds.), Secrecy and methods in critical security research (33-47). Routledge

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 6, 2023
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 33-47
• Book Title: Secrecy and methods in critical security research.
• ISBN: 9780367027230
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1656196
• Contract Date: May 1, 2018