Subaltern narratives: An intersectional analysis of knowledge production by men deprived of their liberty in Chile.

Abstract

Feminist epistemologies have intensified the search for methodological frameworks that resituate academic as well as social and popular critical knowledges. Feminist and social psychology perspectives have emphasized the political dimension of knowledge production and the importance of doing social science research from activist positions involved. By questioning the possibility of representing certain social groups, this article reflects on how we can construct popular subjects’ critical and artistic narratives, subjects that are generally only considered as “informants” in research. This article is based on artistic narrative experiences of popular-sector inmates that used short stories, collages, and poems in order to critically examine the inequalities in their own personal life histories. By incorporating freedom-deprived men’s own reflections in our work, we seek to critique traditional methodologies from a social justice perspective. In the materials generated, the inmates themselves are the ones who strongly criticized the idea of prison as “social destiny” for the Chilean poor, and they also introduced ideas about how their own ways of understanding masculinities have changed based on their experiences in prison. In our final reflections, we propose that it is necessary to explore more deeply social justice methodologies with popular-sector men, especially the incarcerated, in order to contribute to the centering of their voices in important sociopolitical discussions, in this manner imparting a socially recognized, dialogic status.