CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 RESEARCH AIM This study is aimed at providing an assessment of the status of FoE in post-coup Myanmar. Whilst interested in the experience of all citizens in Myanmar with respect to FoE, the research team chose to narrow the focus first on FoE in cyberspace, and second on youth and women because of their visibility and role at the forefront of pro-democratic resistance. The research question can therefore be articulated as: How have politically active women and youth experienced FoE since February 2021 in the cyberspace of Myanmar? Within this primary research question, we are also interested in understanding: How do moments of political upheaval impact an individual and collective understanding of FoE in cyberspace? 14 How does increasing (digital) repression affect the digital practices of a generation of youth, who have both grown accustomed to expressing themselves online? 2.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This report presents a continuation of the general aim of civil society to generate knowledge and learning about civic space during political crisis and acknowledges the critical relationship between the political process and human rights. The research team was interested in how Myanmar people have experienced FoE since the coup began. Further criteria used to narrow the sample under investigation included those citizens who are active online, and a special interest in youth and women. Due to the various communications restrictions and safety concerns associated with attempting to conduct social research in a context like Myanmar, the team had to be somewhat opportunistic about who we were able to speak to, necessitating a kind of convenience sampling in the sense that the team spoke to those who it was possible to reach, and snowball sampling in that the team took recommendations of possible new respondents throughout. As well as wishing to draw out a few tangible indicators for FoE and how it is currently experienced in Myanmar, the study also wanted to make space for exploring the meaning of FoE and how it feels to respondents, and to allow issues to emerge through dialogue. This was deemed especially important given the repressive environment, and the time it can take to build trust between researcher and respondent. Research therefore employed a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. Qualitative data was collected through a series of key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussions (FGD). A total of six KIIs and seven