Investigative Ethnography: A Spatial Approach to Economies of Violence*

Abstract

Based on research in Colombia, this article argues that violent economic situations in specific spaces can be productively studied through a hybrid style of research that combines techniques of investigative journalism with the conceptual and methodological commitments of ethnographic inquiry. “Investigative ethnography,” as this marriage of epistemologies and methods could be called, can help researchers manage the practical problems of access—meaning access to people, sites, and information—within the spaces produced by violent forms of capital accumulation. Questions of space and spatiality are central to investigative ethnography’s approach to these violent economic ensembles. Although oriented toward research on the systematic use of force for profit, this article’s methodological considerations and practical recommendations are also relevant for scholars conducting fieldwork in other kinds of violent spaces and difficult settings.