Learning from the Lack of Political Violence: Conceptual Issues and Research Designs

There is a rich body of literature that has analysed the emergence of political violence from many different perspectives. While various types of methods and data have been used in these studies, some methodological opportunities have remained underutilised. One of these, particularly in the case of qualitative research designs, has been the inclusion of cases characterised by lower levels of political violence. This article discusses how cases with little political violence have been used in qualitative terrorism research thus far, and what kind of opportunities and challenges are related to including such cases in research designs.