Doing Gender: Feminism, Feminists and Research Methods in Human Geography

Insider or outsider, both or neither: some dilemmas of interviewing in a cross-cultural setting

“…A number of geographers have begun to explore ways that the process by which information is interpreted can be made more transparent in qualitative methodologies (Rose, 1997;Gilbert, 1994;Katz, 1994;Kobayashi, 1994;McDowell, 1992a;Pile, 1991). They argue that researchers can situate their knowledge through re¯exive consideration of the relations of power that operate during ®eldwork process.…”

“…Drawing upon metaphors of spatiality, it can be therefore argued that Ôknowledge is never pure but is situated in the complex and sometimes contradictory social locations of producers and audiencesÕ (Women and Geography Study Group, 1997). A number of feminist scholars have argued that researchers need to incorporate methodologies that recognize the existence of multiple viewpoints and the partiality of their own assessments (McDowell, 1992a;England, 1994;Gilbert, 1994;Archibald and Crnkovich, 1995;Lawson, 1995;Pratt and Hanson, 1995).…”

“…Drawing upon metaphors of spatiality, it can be therefore argued that Ôknowledge is never pure but is situated in the complex and sometimes contradictory social locations of producers and audiencesÕ (Women and Geography Study Group, 1997). A number of feminist scholars have argued that researchers need to incorporate methodologies that recognize the existence of multiple viewpoints and the partiality of their own assessments (McDowell, 1992a;England, 1994;Gilbert, 1994;Archibald and Crnkovich, 1995;Lawson, 1995;Pratt and Hanson, 1995).In the search for alternative ways of knowing and interpreting the world, many social scientists have begun to re-examine the bene®ts of qualitative techniques, and in particular those related to ethnography (Eyles, 1988;Katz, 1994;Kobayashi, 1994;Code, 1995;Wolf, 1996;Baxter and Eyles, 1997). The conduct of ethnographic ®eldwork is ®rmly grounded in an empirical methodology that is devoted to the analysis of research data acquired by means of ®rst-hand interactions with members of a local community over a substantial period of time.…”

À Procura das Geografias de Género e Sexualidade em Portugal

“…Estas reflexões, como não poderia deixar de ser, reflectiram-se na importância da prática de estratégias metodológicas (GREGORY et al, 2009;MCDOWELL, 1992) atentas às relações que se estabelecem entre sujeito e objecto, da atenção conferida às várias (in)visibilidades que possam estar em causa, à promoção de uma abordagem relacional, considerando as relações de poder envolvidas e o contexto em que a investigação decorre, e os processos (re)produtores de diferença e, se possível, procurando desafiar esses mesmos, dando 'voz' aos grupos sociais 'estudados' e procurando promover processos de enpowerment. É ainda, de salientar a discussão, em particular advinda dos contributos da teoria queer, para que as estratégias metodológicas 12 (ANDRÉ, 1993;NOSSA, 2001;PEREIRA, 2008PEREIRA, , 2011PEREIRA, , 2013PEREIRA e VASCONCELOS, 2008;PEIXOTO et al, 2005), Espaço Público (FERREIRA, 2010(FERREIRA, , 2011a(FERREIRA, , 2011b(FERREIRA, , 2012FERREIRA e SALVADOR, 2010;VIEIRA, 2009VIEIRA, , 2010aVIEIRA, , 2011aVIEIRA, , 2011bVIEIRA, , 2011cMOREIRA, 2003MOREIRA, , 2010, Espacialidades Urbanas (VIEIRA, 2010a(VIEIRA, , 2010b(VIEIRA, , 2011b(VIEIRA, , 2011c(VIEIRA, , 2011dMOREIRA, 2003MOREIRA, , 2010MOREIRA e SANTOS, 2008;MENDES, 2010), (In)Visibilidade(s) (FERREIRA, 2010(FERREIRA, , 2011a(FERREIRA, , 2011b(FERREIRA, , 2012FERREIRA e SALVADOR, 2010VIEIRA, 2009VIEIRA, , 2010aVIEIRA, , ...…”

Guest Editorial

“…Whereas they regarded it simply as a general openness to the literary, aesthetic, and intuitive sensibilities typical of the humanities, there is now a narrower focus on the deployment of specific methods such as attitudinal questionnaires, in-depth interviewing, and participant observation in field-based human geography research (Cook and Crang, 1995;Eyles and Smith, 1988;Lee, 1992;Smith, 1994). Despite the ostensible narrowing of focus, this development has also been accompanied by an explosion of interest in vexed questions to do with the ethics, politics, and 'positionalitics' endemic to such research (for example, Cook and Crang, 1995;McDowell, 1992;Nast, 1994;Pile, 1991). The obvious reason for this latter development is that qualitative methods detonate routine assumptions about academic objectivity, neutrality, and invisibility which underlie much scientific-quantitative geographical practice, forcing researchers to confront their own indelible presence in the research process as human subjects wrapped up in, influencing, and being influenced by the peoples and places under research.…”