A neutral feminist observer? observation-based research and the politics of feminist knowledge making
Overview
This paper draws from the author’s own experience as a first-time fieldworker, and from Donna Haraway’s writing on feminist knowledge making, to discuss feminist research in development studies as a necessarily political endeavour. Researcher neutrality in feminist fieldwork is neither possible nor desirable. However, a politically engaged approach to observation-based research entails risks and limitations rarely addressed in research methods courses. These are explored with reference to the author’s research on seasonal labour migration and debt bondage in rural central India.
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