Exclusive Insights and Case-related Paradigm Doubting: Participant Observation on German EU Policy

In the literature on participant observation, research on governments or international organizations plays a minor role. Few governments, international bodies or agencies allow for researchers in their inner circles, and much of the information relevant for analysis may fall under rules of restriction. However, if researchers get access to government bodies, they can gather insights on the practices of governance that are hard to acquire with other means. The paper describes a participant observation in the European department of German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It discusses ways to deal with gatekeepers, measures of reliability and the potential dangers of identification of the researcher with his research object.