What do you want to know?” Feminist reflections on interviewing migrant women selling sex in Istanbul

Year 2023, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 76 - 93, 18.05.2023

Emel Coşkun

Abstract

This paper is a critical reflective analysis of the methodological and ethical issues I confronted during my fieldwork with Ugandan migrant women involved in selling sex in Istanbul. Conducting a research with such a fragile group, especially with migrant women in a dynamic and sensitive environment involves in different methodological and ethical challenges. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews, informal conversations and observations, the research was focused on the relationships around commercial sex industry in Ugandan community. The researcher’s position, access to participants through gatekeepers, the hierarchy between the researcher and ‘the researched’ in interviewing women and the data analysis process will be discussed in the light of feminist discussions on methodological approaches. It is argued that being aware of the asymmetric power relations and seeking the possibilities of non-hierarchical relationships in the research processes is an important approach that the feminist methodology offers to researchers.

Keywords

Feminist methodology, migrant women, gender, commercial sex, Turkey

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