Using Mixed Methods to Study Labour Market Institutions

The aim of this article was to demonstrate how the application of mixed methods over a period of time can enrich the study of a labour market institution. The article shows how the adoption of an historical institutionalist approach, combined with repeated fieldwork, can provide novel insights into the reasons why an institution operates in particular ways: its potentialities and limitations. The article shows how this methodology is being applied in ongoing research focused upon the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC). Since the early 2000s, the ILO has been providing ‘hands-on’ assistance in a number of poor countries though its Better Work programme. Cambodia was the first country in which an institution of a ‘monitoring and advice’ nature was set up, and BFC has since provided the model for the expansion of such bodies to other jurisdictions. The aim of the research project is to discover why the history of BFC has resulted in its fulfilling certain functions and not others and being constrained in particular ways that might not have been anticipated by its original designers; to understand its functioning in the context of Cambodia’s economy and politics. The article seeks to demonstrate why mixed methods are particularly well-suited to achieving these aims.