Authenticity in feminist research: a researcher's account of reflexivity

Rodriguez, Jenny K.; Deasey, Shelley and Forrest, Chris and Maslen, Joseph and Smith, Nicola and Taylor, Emmeline, eds. (2007) Authenticity in feminist research: a researcher's account of reflexivity. In: Authentic Artifice: Cultures of the Real. European Studies Research Institute (ESRI), pp. 125-147. ISBN 1-902496-49-3

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Abstract

The paper discusses how anxieties and insecurities resulting from an assumed imperative of authenticity affect the process of reflexivity in feminist research. Drawing on the feminist poststructuralist inspired nature of her research; the author centres her analysis on her experience as a woman doing research focusing on women within a geospatial context of emotional and cultural familiarity. The paper is organised in six sections; after a general introduction, the first section discusses how reflexivity is used by feminist researchers as an authenticity tool with the aim of 'being truthful' to the commitment of exploring people's lives, particularly women's realities. The second section provides a brief description of the nature and objectives of her research. In sections three, four and five, the author reflects on the authenticity/genuineness concerns generated by her geographical positionality, her theoretical positionality and her locus of d(enunciation) and how these affected her thought and production process. This is followed by a closing reflection in the last section, where the author assesses the how reflexivity helped her accomplish authenticity in her own research.

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