In order to effectively capture the contextual dynamics and socialised processes in the climate change-conflict discourse under investigation, the current study follows a qualitative approach. While there are different ways of characterizing or distinguishing between orientations of research, the quantitative and qualitative methods are the two dominant typologies. These two distinctive types identify with the nature of knowledge both already acquired and what is sought in the investigation. They both speak to how the investigator understands the world and the essence of the investigative endeavour being embarked upon.
The form of research also influences the methods that may be considered most useful in a research endeavour because it determines how data is to be collected and analysed, as well as the types of representations and generalizations that the researcher needs to derive from the data being used.
A qualitative method, according to McDonald and Headlam (1999: 8), is one which
“attempt[s] to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations for actions and establish how people interpret their experiences and the world around them [while also providing] holistic insights into the settings of a particular problem”. It is a dialectic and interpretive method which enables the researcher to discover in its holistic social form, the worldview of the participants by capturing events and the contextual meanings which inform social processes and shape the contexts within which events occur. It is against this backdrop that Burns and Grove (2003:19) defined the qualitative approach as “a systematic subjective approach used to describe life experiences and situations to give them meaning”.
The qualitative approach accommodates the subjective peculiarities of persons, places, and contexts. Parahoo (1997) captures this in explaining that qualitative research focuses on the experiences of people while stressing uniqueness of the individual. In the same vein, Holloway and Wheeler (2002:30) describe qualitative research as a form of inquiry into the social world, which “focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experience and the world in which they live”. This approach, as Field and Morse (1996) explains, is
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person-centred, holistic, and humanistic in that it seeks to understand lived experiences. The qualitative method is particularly suitable for studies seeking to understand the interplay between such elements as the perspectives, behaviour, experiences and feelings associated with a social phenomenon. This is because of its naturalistic nature which makes it strategic to the study of the real life situations of the focal groups, people, and communities as they are in their natural social settings.
While a qualitative research design is popular in the social sciences, it is found particularly appropriate in this study because it allows the researcher to capture fluid socio-contextual details of the phenomenon under investigation that may escape analysis if subjected to a de- socialized, de-contextualized quantitative research method. This design also enables the researcher to uncover socio-cultural and historical linkages in the phenomena and establish important transition from one level of vulnerability to another. In this study, adopting the qualitative design helps to uncover the underlying motives for migration and the significance of eco-climatic factors in transitory and sedentary migration decisions among pastoral farmers, gaining insight into experiences of farmers and youths in host communities, as well as evaluating institutional interventions. Denzin and Lincoln (2003) listed some of the qualities which enhance the utility of the qualitative method to include its interpretative, and naturalistic approach to the subject matter being studied, enabling the researcher to make sense of his investigation through the interpretation of the phenomena in the natural sense in which the human elements involved ascribe meanings to them.
The study takes an explanatory, contextual, and critically interpretative approach enabling the researcher to gain a holistic understanding of the context and dynamic processes which justify the qualitative method. According to Berg (2001: 30), explanatory case studies are essential in conducting research on causal linkages especially in complex studies of communities or organisation where researchers may desire to use multivariate cases in order to examine diverse influences such as in pattern-matching situations in which the researcher seeks to relate several bits of information gathered from a similar or same set of cases to test a given theoretical proposition.
The research is also descriptive in the representation of observations drawn across the study areas while also critically engaging the literature. Polit and Hungler (2004) described descriptive research as one which with its main objective as the accurate portrayal of the characteristics of persons, situations or groups. In addition to describing the phenomenon as it
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is observed, the study also attempts to elicit information from respondents with a view to qualifying the effects of climate change on their livelihood and the significance of this impact on the decision to migrate as well as the changing dynamics of such migratory response.
Descriptive method in a qualitatively oriented research enables one to achieve a more accurate capture, and representation of data in the way that a clear picture is produced about the phenomenon being investigated (Mouton and Marais 1996:43-44).
This approach is necessary given the ecological, socio-contextual, and historical nature of the phenomenon under investigation, the subjective nature of the aggregated experiences of the target populations, as well as geo-ecological attributes of the study areas. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), participant interviews and geo-ecological observation of study area are reported in descriptive and interpretative manner, while extant literature is explored from a critical historical perspective. The descriptive approach allows us to contextualize and understand the social effects of climate change and its associated and extended vulnerabilities on the herders and their host communities. It also allows the description of the observed linkages of these effects on conflict and secondary migration in the affected communities.
The interpretative character of the study is in the logical connection that are potentially drawn between one level of vulnerability to another as reported by respondents, and as captured in extant literature.
The approach adopted in this study is informed by the need to understand the socio- ecological and political dimensions of climate change impacts in Nigeria, and particularly, to understand the role climate change plays in violent conflict through resource scarcity and migratory adaptation. It explores how the incidence of climate change and the context of vulnerability influence violent outcomes, as well as how primary and secondary vulnerability links up with broader security issues. To this end, modes of engagement which enable researcher to extract contextual and latent details from the selected cases is deemed necessary in order to effectively address the research questions posed in the study.
Given the importance of the specific nature of the subject and the questions the researcher seeks to answer, it is important to recap the motivation for this study, the objectives, as well as the research questions posed towards achieving these objectives. The motivation for this study is to demonstrate that climate change is a major factor in many cases of violent conflict in Nigeria. It thus attempts to show how climatic and contextual factors interact to precipitate violent outcomes, also highlighting in the process, how such interaction link up with broader
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security issues. The importance rests in its challenge to dominant narratives which question the significance of climate change as a causal factor in violent conflicts and insecurity particularly, in the developing world. In view of this motivation, the study uses data from four recurrent cases of conflict in Nigeria to explore this connection.
The study aimed at the following: one, to establish the connection between climate change and resource contestations or violent conflicts in Nigeria; two, to examine the contributions of socio-contextual (cultural, institutional, economic, and systemic) factors in the transformation of climate-related scarcity and contestations in Nigeria; three, to demonstrate and amplify the connection between climate change-induced scarcity, migration and violent conflicts on communal insecurity; four, to examine the transformation, dispersal, and broader security implications of climate-induced scarcity and migration for primary and secondary host communities; and lastly, to make policy recommendations towards reducing climate- induced migration, communal conflicts and related security challenges in Nigeria.
Correspondingly, the study proposed five questions, including: (1) what is the linkage between climate change and natural resource contestation in Iseyin/Shaki in Oyo, Efon- Alaaye in Ekiti, Oke-Ero in Kwara, and Udeni-Gida in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa, in Nigeria? (2) How do socio-cultural, institutional or systemic factors exacerbate climate-related conflict and insecurity in these communities, and Nigeria as a whole? (3) To what extent does migration serve as a conflict engendering intervening factor in the transformation of climate change-induced scarcity into security problems in Iseyin/Shaki in Oyo, Efon-Alaaye in Ekiti, Oke-Ero in Kwara, and Udeni-Gida in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa, in Nigeria? (4) In what ways are the effects of climate induced scarcity dispersed to secondary host communities in cities and urban centres, and how are these effects replicated in other parts of the country? (5) How can the impacts of climate change-induced scarcity be mitigated at both physically depleted environments and migrant host communities to prevent or reduce conflicts thereby enhancing security, peace and development?