Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political Embodying feminist research: learning from action research, political
Abstract Abstract Abstract AbstractIn the past three decades, feminists and critical theorists have discussed and argued the importance of deconstructing and problematizing social science research methodology in order to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge and the status of truth claims. Nevertheless, often, these ideas have basically remained theoretical propositions not embodied in research practices. In fact there is very little published discussion about the difficulties and limits of their practical application. In this paper we introduce some interconnected reflections starting from two different but related experiences of embodying 'feminist activist research'. Our aim is to emphasise the importance of attending to process, making mistakes and learning during fieldwork, as well as experimenting with personalized forms of analysis, such as the construction of narratives and the story-telling process.
Konstantina Kuneva, a Bulgarian migrant woman living in Greece, was attacked with vitriolic acid by two unknown men as she was going home after work around midnight on 23 December 2008. The neighbours called an ambulance and she was transferred to the nearest on duty hospital; she was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit, where she remains to this day. She has escaped mortal danger but has suffered extensive burns on her face and upper gastrointestinal tract and has undergone several surgeries to restore some of her ingestion (swallowing) capacities. She has lost her vision in one eye. Kuneva, who is a single mother, moved to Greece with her son 15 years ago. During this period she was employed in low paying and menial jobs, even though she holds a university degree from Bulgaria, and she ended up working as a cleaner for the private company OIKOMET. OIKOMET represents one of the largest Greek cleaning companies subcontracted by public institutions and transport services (such as the suburban rail line ISAP where Kuneva worked) to provide cleaning services. Kuneva had been an active and vocal union member and was the first migrant to be elected deputy secretary of the Panattic Union of Cleaners and Domestic Personnel (PEKOP). On numerous occasions, she denounced the illegal and exploitative practices of OIKOMET, thus becoming a target of the company's formal and informal persecution.
In this paper I endeavour to look at therapy through the metaphor of translation, and by unfolding some of the problems of translation, particularly as they relate to structural power hierarchies of systems of meaning production (I refer both to different languages and their relative status, as we can observe for example in the dominance of the English language as global communication currency, and to different discursive domains such as social science, therapy, literature etc.) to highlight some of the challenges that therapists, as well as researchers, face in their respective positions as mediators and arbiters of other people’s meanings and actions.
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