What is it about?
This article is a methodological discussion about the researcher's positionality in research. Not only about how this positionality can influence the research practice and result, but more importantly how to deal with this positionality and accordingly adjust research strategy and practice in concrete empirical studies. The discussion relies on feminist epistemology with an incoperation of feminist standpont theories and situated knowledges. Based on the conversation between the two epistemological positions, the author argues to conceptualize "outsider within" as an interactive space instead of a fixed and stable research position. The empirical basis for the discussion is the author's own research practice in a project on transnational adoption and the construction of Norwegian nationhood, where the author's postionality as an immigrant was obvious and influential (Zhao, 2012).
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Why is it important?
The researcher's postionality is an important epistemological question. It concerns the reliablity and validity of the knowledge produced and it concerns the question about politics of knowledge production.
Perspectives
This article is based on a personal reflection on and exploration of the question of positionality and knowledge production, where I have engaged my personal experience in conducting a research project on transnational adoption and Norwegian nationhood. It starts with a series of questions that I encountered during the project where I suddenly found out that my positonality as an immigrant was so obvious in my research practice and empirical data? Was it an advantage, or disadvantage? What is the implication to my further research practice, say analysis? How to argue for the strength of my research? Based on the discussion of these concrete questions connected to the research project, the article ends with a general theoretical reflection on the questions of positionality, politics of knowledge production, and the methodological implications of the feminist epistemology of situated knowledges.
Dr. Yan Zhao
NORD University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Exploring the interactive space of the ‘outsider within’: Practising feminist situated knowledge in studying transnational adoption, European Journal of Women s Studies, January 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1350506814568361.
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