Reflections on Positionality

Reflections on Positionality:pros, cons and workarounds from an intense fieldwork

Eduardo Gonçalveshttp://about.me/cuducos

Marcelo [email protected]

http://about.me/cuducos


How might we engage direct sellers in a digital learning platform for an ongoing online training support about cosmetics?

Hyposthesis

Users’ profiles and opportunities

User’s needs

Concepts

Benefits

Design principles

Concepts’ integration

Learning platform

Ethnographic research

(exploratory)

Analysis

Co-creation

PHASE 1 PHASE 2

Ethnographic research

(generative)

Analysis

Project scope 3

2 phases ethnographic research

60+ people (mainly women from social-economic levels)

17 cities (from 5 different Brazilian macro regions)

2 research teams(one female researcher, one male researcher

and one person from the client each team)

And some unexpected stories...

Project scope 8


We got back to some participants from the first phase during the second phase.

Due to that it was possible to compare and analyze the influence the researchers

could have had in participants life and draw a set of reflections about the role of

the ethnographer in terms of positionality.

Project scope 9


We got back to some participants from the first phase during the second phase.

Due to that it was possible to compare and analyze the influence the researchers

could have had in participants life and draw a set of reflections about the role of

the ethnographer in terms of positionality.

[Postmodern] ethnographers question the ability of any method to represent ‘reality’ accurately on three grounds: there is no one fixed ‘reality’ in the postmodern understanding of nature to capture ‘accurately’; all methods are cultural and personal constructs, collecting partial and selective knowledge; and since all knowledge is selective, research can offer only a socially constructed account of the world.”

Brewer (2000:22-23)

“

Turning in upon ourselves as researchers makes us look subjectively and reflexively at how we are positioned.”

Chriseri-Strater (1996:119)

“

Our own position during the fieldwork as researchers could have influence

over the access to data.

Our own position during the fieldwork as researchers could have influence

over the access to data.

• Ethnography and the Client

• Ethnography and Gender

• Ethnography and Social Positions

Ethnography and the Client

1

Ethnography and the Client 15

It’s recommended to not disclose the name of the client or it’s presence (if it happened) during corporate ethnography, since it could inhibit participants.

You need to tell them that it must change!”“

Sorry for the inconvenience. I was afraid. You know that’s too much violence... And it’s difficult to trust people nowadays.”

“


Client’s ethical principles

Asked to discloser

name and presence

Concerns for the research team

Better access within the ethnography;

Encouraged participants to talk more, more

passionate, and more in-depth about the

exact topics that we were looking for



Asked to discloser

name and presence



Asked to discloser

name and presenceX

Ethnography and Gender

2

Ethnography and Gender 21

The research theme and the social context led us to think that going to the field with a men on the team could inhibit participants.

Beauty products

Lower socio economic level women(sexist environment dominated by men)

Strategies• Assumed secondary roles in order

to fade out during the interactions;

• Slightly pretended to be more feminine

(or tried to avoid being explicitly masculine).


Theme and social context

Men in the

research team


Our positionality as male researchers may already

be enough to influence the research with this

women profile. However, if we succeeded in this

project (and the project results strongly suggest

we did) we believe that gender was a minor issue.



Men in the

research team



Men in the

research teamX

Actually, these previous issues were not as important as we

thought. In addition to what we pondered perviously, there

were issues we were not able to foresee that were pretty

helpful to the success of the project.

Ethnography and Social Positions

3

Ethnography and Social Positions 29

Even if the use of basic ethnography techniques were as useful as important, there are some issues that are just impossible to dismiss: the research team was Caucasian, some of us were males and some women we were talking to were victims of domestic violence with their husbands being the aggressor.

My son was shot due to his involvement with drugs, with dealers… but you, you don't have this problem, you studied, you have a job, you should get married.”“

You shouldn't be so attached to any boyfriend, you have a college degree, you have a good job, you’re a an independent woman!”“

Differences inherent to the research

teams also – and surprisingly – worked as

positive aspect in terms of positionality

and access our participants.

32

Participants and their

social context

Different

social position


3

We clearly felt that in the beginning of each interaction participants were suspicious about what was going on. On the one hand, probably due to their context. On the other hand, because of the deeply interest that we were having on their lives.


The KP [Kottai Pillaimar] women also wondered what I was getting out of the whole exercise. ‘Well, at least a Ph.D.,’ I would joke, but they were not convinced. Why should anyone leave family and city comforts to spend weeks at a stretch wandering around the KP villages? Nonetheless, once they had got the drift of the questions I asked, their responses were quick. They felt that I was genuinely interested in what they had to say, I remembered the smallest things they told me and followed up next time. We were soon locked jointly in the enterprise of discovering their history. Reciprocity was not an issue any more.

Kamala Ganesh (1993:136)

“

That's not how it works here, if we broke up, he'll beat me, even threaten me with a machete or something.”“

Deep level of access to someone's life

because visiting them was something unique

for them, was something that had the

potential to value them – and they felt that.

36

Not used to have

anyone truly listening


Participants and their

social context

Ethnography and its Impacts

?

Only by doing our job, we could not avoid to have influence

over the people we were talking to; we changed our source.

It leads us to reflect on the influence that our practice have

on the research object and on the research results itself

– and all the ethical issues involved on that.

Ethnography and its Impacts 39

The peculiarities and contingencies of each fieldwork can challenge the rules as well as its effects.

1

[methodological guidelines] are like signpost or a map to provide some direction and give us clues as to where to go when we get lost.”

De Vaus suggests (2002:7)

“

You should not try to follow each step slavishly. Use the method: do not let it use you.”

De Vaus suggests (2002:7) “

42Ethnography and its Impacts

Since now they could be different people from what they were before, and since

the very fact of doing the research with them was the catalyst of that change.

To what extent is it possible to consider that we got to know the lifestyle of our participants?

2

43Ethnography and its Impacts

Do we have the right to get into someone else life and, without notice, drive them to such a deep impact as we did during this project?

3

All those are unavoidable consequences of the work we do

– and we cannot afford to do it without reflecting on them.

Thank you.

Eduardo Gonçalveshttp://about.me/cuducos

Marcelo [email protected]



Asad, T. (1994). Ethnographic, Representation, Statistics, and Modern Power. Social Research, 61(1).

Back, L. (1993). Gendered Participation. Masculinity and Fieldwork in a South London Adolescent Community. In Diane Bell, Pat Caplan and Wazir Jahan Karim (eds.) Gendered Fields. Women, Men and Ethnography. London: Routledge.

Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.

Brewer, J. D. (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Chiseri-Strater, E. (1996). Turning in Upon Ourselves. Positionality, Subjectivity and Reflexivity. In. Ed. Peter Mortensen and Gesa Kirsch (eds.). Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English.

De Vaus, D. (2002). Surveys in Social Research. 5 ed. London: Routledge.

Ganesh, K. (1993). Breaching the Wall of Difference. Fieldwork and a Personal Journey to Srivaikuntam, Tamilnadu. In Diane Bell, Pat Caplan and Wazir Jahan Karim (eds.) Gendered Fields. Women, Men and Ethnography. London: Routledge.

Harrington, B. (2002). Obtrusiveness as Strategy in Ethnographic Research. Qualitative Sociology, 25(1).

Kvale, S. and Brinkman, S. (2009) Interviews. Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: Sage.

Ladner, S. (forthcoming 2013). Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector. (Sample chapters shared by the author as a work-in-progress).

Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea. London: Routledge.

References

Web resources

Schiffman, J. and Civelekoglu, D. (2012). The Refocus Group. (Conference at IDSA 2012 Midwest Design Dialogue Conference). Available: http://vimeo.com/42413053. Last accessed 10th July 2013.

http://vimeo.com/42413053

http://vimeo.com/42413053

Reflections on Positionality

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