Great Expectations: Studying My Own Community

Abstract

The literature on insider methodology in social sciences underlines advantages for the insider researcher in addition to more subtle problems and pitfalls in terms of the relationship between the researcher and the researched.  This paper aims to explore my experiences as the insider researcher studying Circassians in Turkey, my own community and discuss their implications for researching Circassians in particular and ethnic groups in general. As the insider researcher position provided “great expectations” on the side of the researched and hence some very critical advantages in the field for the researcher, it did not guarantee a fixed power relationship as the interviews in the field took place within a series of negotiations between the researcher and the informants in terms of age, gender, class etc. This article is an attempt to explore these negotiations, complexities and fluidities of positionality in the field and hence in the processes of academic knowledge production. 

 

Keywords

• Methodology,insider research,positionality

Большие надежды: изучение собственного сообщества

Öz

Great Expectations: Studying My Own Community [Büyük Beklentiler: Kendi Etnik Grubunu Çalışmak]

Öz

Sosyal bilimlerde araştırmacının ‘içeriden’, araştırılacak grubun bir üyesi olması, araştırmacı ve araştırılan arasındaki ilişki ve mesafe açısından çıkabilecek sorunların dışında, araştırmacı için genelde avantajlı bir konum olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu makale benim ‘içeriden’ bir araştırmacı olarak Türkiye’deki Çerkesleri çalışma deneyimlerimi ve bu deneyimlerin dar anlamda Çerkesleri, geniş anlamda ise etnik grupları çalışma açısından anlamını tartışmayı hedeflemektedir.  İçeriden araştırma yapma pozisyonu, araştırılanlar açısından “büyük beklentiler” ve benim açımdan da son derece önemli avantajlar sağlamış olsa da bu çalışmanın dayandığı görüşmeler, araştırmacı ve araştırılan arasındaki yaş, cinsiyet ve sınıf temelli müzakereler içinden gerçekleşmiştir ve bu açıdan “içeri” ve “dışarı” kavramları sabit kavramlar olmamıştır. Bu makale sahada (dolayısıyla da akademik bilgi üretimi süreçlerinde) ‘içeriden’ araştırmacı ile araştırılan arasında sürekli müzakere edilen güç ilişkilerini ve konumsallığın akışkanlığını ve karmaşıklığını tartışmayı hedeflemektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Methodoloji,içeriden araştırma,konumsallık

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