Destabilizing the privilege of the knower to establish forms of solidarity

Reflections on conducting fieldwork with vulnerable communities in India and Romania

Bibliographic Data

ID4563787
AuthorsCristina-Ioana Dragomir (0000-0001-7674-731X, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume13
Issue3
Publication date2020-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMethodological Innovations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2059-7991 • E-ISSN: 2059-7991
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2059799120968728
OpenAlexW3110854899
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

In this article, I interrogate the researcher's role in conducting ethnographic and qualitative fieldwork with vulnerable communities and argue that increased epistemological reflexiveness is needed to support solidarity ties between researchers and participants. In line with critical feminist literature and methodology, I present the inconsistencies of the power relations I entered as a researcher, as well as the systemic inequalities I found operating in the background. Using several vignettes based on my fieldwork with communities labeled as "Gypsy" in Romania and India, I make the argument that power dynamics encountered in the field reveal the researchers' simultaneous privilege and their subaltern status, creating an epistemological position grounded in the intersection of gender, race/ ethnicity, and class, which in turn could deter from bonds of solidarity. In line with feminist methodologies and intersectionality literature, I argue that the researcher's gender, race, ethnicity, and class (co)generate epistemological outcomes, and that without critical reflection researchers may reinforce hierarchies of power. Thus, I both adopt and innovate this approach, by showing how as researchers we inhabit concomitantly different and fluctuating positionalities. I end by advocating for reflexiveness on the researchers' power to create epistemological categories and processes, which may (re)enforce solidarity relations between researchers and communities

Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Field (mathematics · Habitus · Intersectionality · Participant observation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Privilege (computing · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Subaltern · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Romani and Gypsy Studies

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Open DOIOpen Access