Critical and Creative Research Methodologies in Social Work by Lia Bryant

Author:Lia Bryant [Bryant, Lia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work, Research
ISBN: 9781317157625
Google: Kbq1CwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-03-09T02:53:16+00:00

Autoethnography as Situated and Embodied Research Practice

Autoethnography challenges established divides between object and subject and so it is important to situate ourselves as researchers and researched in this study. We find Haraway’s (1988) notion of situated knowledges useful because physical bodies are located at a particular place and telephony may extend or limit both place and space by the vision, memories, and imagination that emerge as a consequence of telephone use. Thus, possibilities and limitations of ‘vision’ and ‘seeing’ in research are embodied practices bound to shifting practices of privilege and/or subordination. In our case, situatedness has multiple meanings as we inherit positions as researchers and researched and the telephone is a medium for both placement and transgression. To understand our situatedness, we have chosen the concept of reflexivity rather than reflection. Reflexivity is a process, which requires critical engagement with one’s own images of the world, marginalisation and privilege, researcher and researched, interpretation, contradictions and ethics (Guillemin and Gillam, 2004; Lash, 2003). The term reflexivity refers to a bidirectional approach, the researcher shaping research while through critical engagement the research and researcher are shaped by the research process and participants. Reflection, on the other hand, has been critiqued for limitations of navel gazing and abstraction (Davies et al., 2004). Reflexivity, according to Pillow (2003, p. 177), is a process producing discomfort through methodological innovation, and he writes, ‘to be reflective does not demand an “other”, while to be reflexive demands both an other and some self-conscious awareness of the process of scrutiny’. We have used a reflexive approach to consider and question the construction of our research design, data, and analysis by continually questioning and, where appropriate, changing the way we collected, analysed, or reported data. For example, in relation to ethics, we became aware when writing our diaries that some of our feelings and thoughts could be harmful to others who were unintentionally involved in our research and, noting our privilege and power as academic researchers but also as wives, partners and friends, this required that some of the recorded information remain in our diaries and not be shared or used for research. Thus, for us, reflexivity is both a scrutiny of ourselves and our research, a willingness to critique and, where necessary, alter our research practices, which in turn reshapes the research and, indeed, ourselves.

Our biographies include commonalities and differences. As academic scholars we both inhabit privileged spaces as white bodies and, at the same time, this privilege is challenged by a number of considerations, such as geographical peripheral location, gender, class background and family constellation. We are women in our early 50s, working as researchers and teaching at universities; however, our geographical locations, life and family situations, backgrounds and mother tongues are different. One of us lives in a city in the southern region of Australia and is of Greek heritage and the other lives in a small city in a rural area of mid Sweden, is of Swedish heritage and has a farming background. We both use English in research and teaching, which is for both of us a second language.

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