Participants
Ivan Grek3; Maxime Audinet4; Marina Vyrskaia1; Florian Toepfl2; Alona Shestopalova5; 1 University of Helsinki, Finland; 2 University of Passau, Germany; 3 George Washington University, United States; 4 French Institute for Strategic Research, France; 5 Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), UKDiscussion
Among its many consequences, the “exogenous shock” provoked by Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine is profoundly transforming the field of Russian studies and raising considerable methodological and epistemological issues. Scholars in this field are faced with the need to renew their research methods and sources in light of the almost total inaccessibility to the “on-site” fieldwork in Russia. This roundtable proposes to discuss the epistemological and methodological challenges and opportunities associated with digital methods and surveys.
The speakers will first debate the practice of “digital fieldwork” in the Russian context. Digital fieldwork is rooted in scientific discussions on the “computational turn” and the digitization of area studies. Over the past decade, open-source investigations (OSINT) have become decisive in the documentation of organized crime, elite corruption, or contemporary conflicts. Its investigative practices are made possible by the omnipresence of sensors that digitize a growing proportion of human activities and generate “digital footprints”. Although these digital traces and sources are widely used by intelligence services, journalists, and activists, academics are yet to use them to their full potential. The possibility of a fieldwork “augmented” by digital technology, appears especially fruitful—as these traces abound on the Russian internet.
Second, the roundtable will discuss the use of polls, both before and during the war. The use of this methodology has been affected by war censorship laws. Have response rates changed significantly since? What do we know about actual respondents and people who refuse to participate in polls (on the phone and online)? Do these two groups differ, and how? Answering these questions is especially important because, despite the increased repression in Russia, citizens still answer sensitive questions.
The roundtable will feature researchers based in Finland, France, Germany, and the United States. It also aims to bring together researchers involved in collective initiatives, both in Europe and in the United States: the Russia Programme, the CORUSCANT research collective, the Centre for Information Resilience. 
