Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork


Book Description

Fieldwork poses particular dilemmas and contradictions for feminists because of the power relations inherent in the process of gathering data and implicit in the process of representation. Although most feminist scholars are committed to seeking ethical ways to analyze women and gender, these dilemmas are especially acute in fieldwork, where resear




Feminist Dilemmas In Fieldwork


Book Description

Fieldwork poses particular dilemmas and contradictions for feminists because of the power relations inherent in the process of gathering data and implicit in the process of representation. Although most feminist scholars are committed to seeking ethical ways to analyze women and gender, these dilemmas are especially acute in fieldwork, where research often entails working with those who are in less privileged positions than the researcher. Despite attempts by feminist scholars to conduct more interactive and egalitarian research, they have rarely been able to disrupt the hierarchies of power. This book offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the kinds of dilemmas feminist researchers have confronted in the field, both in the United States and in Third World countries. Through experientially based writings, the authors unravel the contradictions stemming from their multiple positions as "insiders," "outsiders," or both, and from attempts to equalize the research relationship and, in some cases, to ameliorate the situation of those studied. The introductory essay includes an extensive review of the literature.




Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research


Book Description

How can researchers produce work with relevance to theoretical and formal traditions and requirements of public academic knowledge while still remaining faithful to the experiences and accounts of research participants based in private settings? Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research explores this key dilemma and examines the interplay between theory, epistemology and the detailed practice of research. It does this across the whole research process: access, data collection and analysis and writing up research. It goes on to consider ways of achieving high standards of reflexivity and openness in the strategic choices made during research, examining these issues for specific projects in an open and accessible style. Particular themes examined are: the research dilemmas that occur from feminist perspectives in relation to researching private and personal social worlds; the position of the researcher as situated between public knowledge and private experience; and the dilemmas raised for researchers seeking to contribute to academic discourse while remaing close to their knowledge forms.




Fieldwork, Participation and Practice


Book Description

This timely and topical look at the role of ethics in fieldwork takes into account some of the major issues confronting qualitative researchers. The main purposes of this book are twofold: to promote an understanding of the harmful possibilities of fieldwork; and to provide ways of dealing with ethical problems and dilemmas. To these ends, examples of actual fieldwork are provided that address ethical problems and dilemmas, and posit ways of dealing with them.




Muddying the Waters


Book Description

In Muddying the Waters, Richa Nagar embarks on an eloquent and moving exploration of the promises and pitfalls she has encountered during her two decades of transnational feminist work. With stories, encounters, and anecdotes as well as methodological reflections, Nagar grapples with the complexity of working through solidarities, responsibility, and ethics while involved in politically engaged scholarship. Experiences that range from the streets of Dar es Salaam to farms and development offices in North India inform discussion of the labor and politics of coauthorship, translation, and genre blending in research and writing that cross multiple--and often difficult--borders. The author links the implicit assumptions, issues, and questions involved with scholarship and political action, and explores the epistemological risks and possibilities of creative research that bring these into intimate dialogue Daringly self-conscious, Muddying the Waters reveals a politically engaged researcher and writer working to become ""radically vulnerable,"" and the ways in which such radical vulnerability can allow a re-imagining of collaboration that opens up new avenues to collective dreaming and laboring across sociopolitical, geographical, linguistic, and institutional borders.




Feminist Methodology


Book Description

`An accessible, clearly explained review of difficult concepts within this arena as well as relevant debates. Its strengths are in outlining possible considerations that need to be taken into account when making methodological choices. It also clearly explains how these choices impact knowledge production. This book would undoubtedly be of considerable use to anyone seeking to understand and get to grips with feminist methodological issues′ - Feminism and Psychology Who would be a feminist now? Contemporary ′political realism′ suggests that the essentials of the battle have already been won, and the current generation of women entering University is used to seeing feminism presented as ′old fashioned′, ′extreme′ and ′unrealistic′. Challenging such assumptions, this important new book argues for the value of empirical investigations of gendered life, and brings together the theoretical, political and practical aspects of feminist methodology. Feminist Methodology - demonstrates how feminist approaches to methodology engage with debates in western philosophy to raise critical questions about knowledge production - shows that feminist methodology has a distinctive place in social research - guides the reader through the terrain of feminist methodology and clarifies how feminists can claim knowledge of gendered social existence - connects abstract issues of theory with issues in fieldwork practice. This timely and accessible book will be an essential resource for students in women′s studies, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, social anthropology and feminist psychology.




Ethical Dilemmas in Feminist Research


Book Description

Proposes feminist research principles to assist in making informed decisions to address ethical dilemmas that arise in research and teaching.




Feminist Methodologies for International Relations


Book Description

Why is feminist research carried out in international relations (IR)? What are the methodologies and methods that have been developed in order to carry out this research? Feminist Methodologies for International Relations offers students and scholars of IR, feminism, and global politics practical insight into the innovative methodologies and methods that have been developed - or adapted from other disciplinary contexts - in order to do feminist research for IR. Both timely and timeless, this volume makes a diverse range of feminist methodological reflections wholly accessible. Each of the twelve contributors discusses aspects of the relationships between ontology, epistemology, methodology, and method, and how they inform and shape their research. This important and original contribution to the field will both guide and stimulate new thinking.




Black Feminist Anthropology


Book Description

In the discipline's early days, anthropologists by definition were assumed to be white and male. Women and black scholars were relegated to the field's periphery. From this marginal place, white feminist anthropologists have successfully carved out an acknowledged intellectual space, identified as feminist anthropology. Unfortunately, the works of black and non-western feminist anthropologists are rarely cited, and they have yet to be respected as significant shapers of the direction and transformation of feminist anthropology. In this volume, Irma McClaurin has collected-for the first time-essays that explore the role and contributions of black feminist anthropologists. She has asked her contributors to disclose how their experiences as black women have influenced their anthropological practice in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, and how anthropology has influenced their development as black feminists. Every chapter is a unique journey that enables the reader to see how scholars are made. The writers present material from their own fieldwork to demonstrate how these experiences were shaped by their identities. Finally, each essay suggests how the author's field experiences have influenced the theoretical and methodological choices she has made throughout her career. Not since Diane Wolf's Feminist Dilemmas in the Field or Hortense Powdermaker's Stranger and Friend have we had such a breadth of women anthropologists discussing the critical (and personal) issues that emerge when doing ethnographic research.




Feminist Methodologies for Critical Researchers


Book Description

This accessible text on social research methodology teaches students of sociology and related disciplines how standard methods can be adapted toward critical ends. The second edition has been updated throughout to incorporate the latest critical scholarship, enhanced discussion of qualitative methods, new material on global issues, sex/sexuality/gender, new discussion of intersectionality, how social media can shape research, and more. Author Joey Sprague describes and evaluates a wide array of methodological options—from quantitative to qualitative—and explores the links between epistemology and methodology. She proposes a program to overcome bias in standard methodologies and offers practical suggestions that can be used effectively by all progressive researchers. The second edition of Feminist Methodology for Critical Researchers is of value to scholars across disciplines and an essential text or supplement for methods classes.