Militantly ‘studying up’? (Ab)using whiteness for oppositional research

Bibliographic Data

ID8360967
AuthorsNick Clare (0000-0001-5425-4012, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume49
Issue3
Pages377-383
Publication date2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArea (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-0894 • E-ISSN: 1475-4762
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/area.12326
OpenAlexW2589871596
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited34

This paper develops the idea of militantly ‘studying up’. Through a discussion of research into the relationship between migrants and social/labour movements in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it explores the way in which my positionality both helped and hindered the (militant) research process. As the possibility for militant research seemed to recede, by interrogating the antagonisms bound up in the disjuncture between my perceived and my performed positionality, I was able to retain a commitment to militant research/research militancy. The movement to a form of oppositional (auto)ethnography was underpinned by an (ab)use of my whiteness. This touched on new possibilities for militant research, and also afforded further reflection on the structuring power of whiteness itself. Situating itself against‐and‐beyond discussions of militant research, this paper explores not only the rich potential but also the difficulties and limitations of such a methodology. In this regard it foregrounds discussion of failure as a key reflexive strategy. Ultimately it argues that there is potentially value in ‘studying up’ within militant (migration) research, but that concerns surround the (re‐)reification of the very identities and structures that are intended to be deconstructed

Conceptualization · Epistemology · Militant · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Reification (Marxism) · Social science · Sociology · Structuring · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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