Feminist Araştırmada İçeriden ve/veya Dışarıdan Olmak: Akademi ve Aktivizm Arasında Bir Köprü olarak Düşünümsellik

Year 2019, , 3728 - 3745, 15.10.2019

Pelin Dinçer

https://doi.org/10.33206/mjss.532325

Abstract

Araştırmanın ‘bilimsel’ olarak kabul edilmesi için klasik positivist yaklaşımların ‘nesnellik’ gerekliliğine rağmen, feminist araştırma, araştırmacıların bilgi üretimi içerisindeki konumluluğunun etkisini vurgulamakta ve bilimsel bir araştırma için tarafsızlığa vurgu yapılmasını eleştirmektedir. Feministler, araştırma içindeki güç ilişkilerini incelemiş ve araştırmacıların konumlarını – içeriden ve/veya dışarıdan gelen bir konumluluğa sahip olarak – karmaşık güç ilişkileri açısından tartışmışlardır. Bu inceleme, feminist araştırma içerisinde bilginin konumluluğunu vurgulayan ve araştırmadaki hiyerarşiyi ortadan kaldırmak ve akademi ile aktivizm arasındaki ikilemi uzlaştırmak için önemli bir potansiyele sahip olan düşünümsellik üzerine detaylı bir çalışmayı gerektirir. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmada, feminist nitel araştırma, özellikle mülakatlar, içerisindeki dinamiklere, düşünümsellik kavramına, araştırmacıların içeriden ve/veya dışarıdan konumlarına dair tartışmalara ve feminist düşünümselliğin akademi/aktivizm ikiliği arasında bir köprü kurmak için nasıl bir araç olarak kullanılabileceğine odaklanılmaktadır.

Keywords

düşünümsellik, konumsallık, feminist araştırma, mülakat, içeriden/dışarıdan konumları

Being an Insider and/or Outsider in Feminist Research: Reflexivity as a Bridge Between Academia and Activism

Abstract

Despite the ‘objectivity’ requisite of classic positivist approaches for the research to be considered as ‘scientific’, feminist research stresses the impact of researchers’ positionality within knowledge production and criticises the emphasis on neutrality for a scientific inquiry. Feminists have explored the power relations within the research and discussed the researchers’ position – holding an insider and/or outsider positionality – in terms of their complex relations of power. This examination requires elaboration on reflexivity, a critical stance in feminist research that stresses the situatedness of knowledge, which has a significant potential to eliminate the hierarchy within the research and to reconcile the dichotomy between academia and activism. Thus, this study focuses on the dynamics within the feminist qualitative research, particularly interviewing, the notion of reflexivity, the discussions of researchers’ insider and/or outsider status and how feminist reflexivity can be used as a tool to form a bridge between academia/activism binary. 

Keywords

reflexivity, positionality, feminist research, interview, insider/outsider positions

References

• Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a feminist life, Croydon: Duke University Press.
• Banks, J. A. (1998). “The Lives and Values of Researchers: Implications for Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society”. Educational Researcher, 27(7), 4-17.
• Bell, S. E. (2015). “Bridging Activism and the Academy: Exposing Environmental Injustices Through the Feminist Ethnographic Method of Photovoice”. Human Ecology Review, 21(1), 27-58.
• Berg, B. L. (1991). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, London: Pearson.
• Berger, R. (2015). “Now I See It, Now I Don’t: Researcher’s Position and Reflexivity in Qualitative Research”. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219-234.
• Brooks, A. (2007). “Feminist Standpoint Epistemology: Building Knowledge and Empowerment Through Women’s Lived Experiences”. S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice: A Primer. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 53-83.
• Brooks, A., & Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2007). “An Invitation to Feminist Research”. S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice: A Primer. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1-27.
• Bryman, A. (2008). Social research methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• DeVault, M. L., & Gross, G. (2007). “Feminist Interviewing: Experience, Talk, and Knowledge”. S. N. Hesse-Biber (Ed.), Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis. California: Sage Publications, 173-199.
• Dwyer, S. C., & Buckle, J. L. (2009). “The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research”. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 54 63.
• Eschle, C., & Maignuashca, B. (2006). “Bridging the Academic/Activist Divide: Feminist Activism and the Teaching of Global Politics”. Journal of International Studies, 35(1), 119-137.
• Falconer, E. (2017). “Moments of Collusion? Close Readings of Affective, Hidden Moments within Feminist Research”. Women’s Studies International Forum, 61, 75-80.
• Grewal, J. (2008). “Theorizing Activism, Activizing Theory: Feminist Academics in Indian Punjabi Society”. NWSA Journal, 20(1), 161-183.
• Griffin, G. (2016). “Interviewing as Negotiation”. G. Griffin (Ed.), Cross-Cultural Interviewing: Feminist Experiences and Reflections. London: Routledge, 15-30.
• Haraway, D. (1988). “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575-599.
• Harcourt, W., Ling, L. H. M., Zalewski, M., & Swiss International Relations Collective. (2015). “Assessing, Engaging, and Enacting Worlds”. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17(1), 158-172.
• Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? New York: Cornell University Press.
• Hayfield, N., & Huxley, C. (2015). “Insider and Outsider Perspectives: Reflections on Researcher Identities in Research with Lesbian and Bisexual Women”. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(2), 91-106.
• Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2007). “The Practice of Feminist In-Depth Interviewing”. S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice: A Primer. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 111-149.
• King, N., & Horrocks, C. (2010). Interviews in qualitative research, London: Sage Publications.
• Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews, U. Flick (Ed.). London: Sage Publications.
• Letherby, G. (2003). Feminist research in theory and practice, Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Liamputtong, P. (2010). Performing qualitative cross-cultural research, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Linabary, J. R., & Hamel, S. A. (2017). “Feminist Online Interviewing: Engaging Issues of Power, Resistance and Reflexivity in Practice”. Feminist Review, 115(1), 97-113.
• Maxey, I. (1999). “Beyond Boundaries? Activism, Academia, Reflexivity and Research”. Area, 31(3), 199-208.
• Merriam, S. B., Johnson-Bailey, J., Lee, M., Kee, Y., Nyseane, G., & Muhamad, M. (2001). “Power and Positionality: Negotiating Insider/Outsider Status within and Across Cultures”. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20(5), 405-416.
• Mullings, B. (1999). “Insider or Outsider, Both or Neither: Some Dilemmas of Interviewing in a Cross-Cultural Setting”. Geoforum, 30, 337-350.
• Nirmala, S. G. (2018). “A Study on Feminist Methods in Human Rights Research”. International Journal of Current Humanities and Social Science Researches (IJCHSSR), 2(2), 20-22.
• Nowicka, M., & Ryan, L. (2015). “Beyond Insiders and Outsiders in Migration Research: Rejecting a Priori Commonalities. Introduction to the FQS Thematic Section on ‘Researcher, Migrant, Woman: Methodological Implications of Multiple Positionalities in Migration Studies’”. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 16(2).
• Oakley, A. (1981). “Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms”. H. Roberts (Ed.), Doing Feminist Research. London: Routhledge&Kegan Paul, 30-62.
• Philip, G., & Bell, L. (2017). “Thinking Critically About Rapport and Collusion in Feminist Research: Relationships, Contexts and Ethical Practice”. Women’s Studies International Forum, 61, 71-74.
• Pollack, S., & Eldridge, T. (2015). “Complicity and Redemption: Beyond the Insider/Outsider Research Dichotomy”. Social Justice, 42(2), 132-145.
• Reinharz, S. (1992). Feminist methods in social research, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Rose, G. (1997). “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics”. Progress in Human Geography, 23(1), 305-320.