Feel-bad moments: Unpacking the complexity of class, gender and whiteness when studying ‘up’

Abstract

Intimacy, shared experiences and evening out the power relations between researcher and the participants play an important role in feminist methodology. However, as highlighted in previous research on studying 'up', such methods might not be appropriate when studying privileged groups. Therefore, studying privileged women challenges fundamental assumptions in feminist methodology. When researching privileged women, the assumption that the researcher is almost always in a superior position within the research process becomes more complicated. The article seeks to contribute to the feminist methodological literature on how to study privileged groups by exploring how class, gender and whiteness are produced in three fieldwork situations with women who hold privileges in a postcolonial and capitalist landscape. Drawing on interviews and participant observations with white Swedish migrant women, the article argues that researchers need to turn the problems, fears and feelings of being uncomfortable into important data, in order to study privileged groups of women.

“It Is So Swedish That You Have to Work”. Returning Swedish Migrant Women’s Negotiations of Gender Equality and Heterosexuality

“…The interviews were semi-structured and had a duration of between one and two-and -a-half hours. The interviews and fieldnotes were manually coded, and the analysis was focused on the topics of migration, belonging, and gender, as well as whiteness and class privileges (see also Sohl, 2018). The analysis can be described as abductive, since it shifted between the empirical material and the theoretical tools and previous research, for instance as a means of understanding the women's views on gender equality and heterosexuality.…”

From the Academy to the Boardroom: Methodological Challenges and Insights on Transnational Business Feminism

“…Feminist methodological debates on fieldwork involving elites converge around open-ended demands for a rigorous analysis of the role and positionality of the researcher in the production of knowledge, a reflexive analysis of the micropolitics of the research process (McDowell, 1998; Conti and O’Neil, 2007; Becker and Aiello, 2013; Johnson, 2014) and a nuanced understanding of the operations and fluid dynamics of power in elite interviews (Smith, 2006; Faria and Mollett, 2016; Williams, 2017; Sohl, 2018). In laying bare relations and experiences of power during the research process, feminists can reflexively account for how knowledge is created and what knowledge is disseminated (Conti and O’Neil, 2007; Becker and Aiello, 2013).…”

Overempowered? Diversity-Focused Research with Gender/Sex and Sexual Majorities

“…Research that addresses epistemic injustice via research on/with minorities, minoritization, and power might be called “minority-focused” 1 (Fricker, 2007; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Minority-focused research uses critical methods and methodologies for engaging with power that have largely been built with insights from the margins (Aydarova, 2019; Campbell & Wasco, 2000; Hurtado & Stewart, 2004; Sohl, 2018). This includes aiming to counter research practices that disempower marginalized groups and, instead, provide welcoming, empowering, and/or validating experiences (Campbell & Wasco, 2000; Hurtado & Stewart, 2004; Sohl, 2018).…”

“…Minority-focused research uses critical methods and methodologies for engaging with power that have largely been built with insights from the margins (Aydarova, 2019; Campbell & Wasco, 2000; Hurtado & Stewart, 2004; Sohl, 2018). This includes aiming to counter research practices that disempower marginalized groups and, instead, provide welcoming, empowering, and/or validating experiences (Campbell & Wasco, 2000; Hurtado & Stewart, 2004; Sohl, 2018). These methods can, in theory at least, be used in research on other topics and participants to make studies more welcoming and inclusive; we might describe research that uses these methods as “minority-inclusive” 1 when it is not minority-focused in question, goal, or participants.…”