Situated knowledge in cross-cultural, cross-language research: a collaborative reflexive analysis of researcher, assistant and participant subjectivities

Caretta, Martina Angela

doi:10.1177/1468794114543404

Cited by 108 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…All interviewees and participants, equally divided between men and women, were active farmers between the ages of 20 and 60. Methodological choices were guided by feminist epistemology, particularly in relation to the importance given to open interpersonal relationships between researcher, assistants/interpreters and participants (see Caretta in press). Member checking (Cho and Trent ) was used in the form of a pamphlet with pictures and brief explanations in Swahili and the local language of Marakwet.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems inEastAfrica

Caretta

2014

Geographical Journal

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Water is a natural resource whose control for productive purposes is often in the hands of men. Societies grounded on such unequal gender relations have been defined 'hydropatriarchies'. Against this background, this paper presents a gender analysis of landscape investments, conceptualised as landesque capital in smallholder irrigation farming in East Africa. Based on the analysis of how local gender contracts are negotiated, I argue that as processes of landesque capital formation are often explicitly gendered, attentiveness to gender dynamics is required to fully understand such practices. Moreover, as investments in landesque capital, for example, irrigation, terracing and drainage systems, have primarily been conceptualised as the result of men's systematic work, this study highlights women's contributions to the creation of landesque capital, taking smallholder irrigation as an example. Findings show that a distinction between 'incremental' and 'systematic' change (Doolittle 1984; Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74 124-37) is central to understanding the gender dynamics of landesque capital investment, but it is not sufficient. As women's work processes are typically not systematic, possibly promoting incremental change, they contribute to the production of landesque capital by supporting and facilitating men's work. However, the work of women is, as a rule, homogenised and stereotypically rendered as reproductive and secondary, due to the underlying cultural norms that limit, control or exploit women. This conceptualisation, or rather lack of, I argue, risks leading to a gender-blind analysis of land use intensification processes. Building on the gendered and symbolic nature of landesque capital, I propose a local gender contract analysis that integrates the cultural, symbolic and physical dimensions of the local gender division of labour into agricultural work and landscape change processes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems inEastAfrica

Caretta

2014

Geographical Journal

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“…A female field assistant was employed to work also as an interpreter. As I had learnt Swahili, the field assistant only translated questions, but not informants´ answers (for an analysis on translation techniques and positionality see Caretta, 2014a). Qualitative methods were employed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing variability and scarcity. An analysis of Engaruka: A Maasai smallholder irrigation farming community

Caretta

2015

Agricultural Water Management

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This article examines the common-pool regime of Engaruka, a smallholder irrigation farming community in northern Tanzania. Irrigation is a complex issue due to water asymmetry. Water use is regulated in Engaruka through boundary, allocation, input and penalty rules by a users´ association that controls and negotiates water allocation to avoid conflicts among headenders and tailenders. As different crops -maize and beans, bananas and vegetables-are cultivated, different watering schemes are applied depending on the water requirements of every single crop. Farmers benefit from different irrigation schedules and from different soil characteristics through having their plots both downstream and upstream. In fact, depending on water supply, cultivation is resourcefully extended and retracted.Engaruka is an ethnically homogeneous and interdependent community where headenders and 2 tailenders are often the same people and are hence inhibited to carry out unilateral action. Drawing on common-pool resource literature, this study argues that in a context of population pressure alongside limited and fluctuating water availability, non-equilibrium behavior, consisting in negotiating water rights and modifying irrigation area continuously through demand management, is crucial for the satisfaction of basic and productive needs and for the avoidance of water conflicts. Highlights: Water management in Engaruka is a common-pool regime  The mgawa maji controls water distribution and avoids conflict  Population pressure and fluctuating water supply lead to non-equilibrium behavior  Non-equilibrium behavior requires water demand management  Rights to agricultural expansion are constantly negotiated Keywords: smallholder farming, canal irrigation, common-pool regimes, non-equilibrium behavior, Tanzania IntroductionGovernance and management of limited and fluctuating water supply is a fundamental challenge facing many irrigation systems. Water allocation in such a context can generate conflict, especially when the irrigation system is the most important source of livelihood for the local community (Tang, 1992). These circumstances are further strained when population pressure increases demand for an already limited resource. In studies of common-pool resources there is consensus that small homogenous local groups can bring about successful institutional arrangements that can ensure the sustainable use of resources. However, dealing with a resource such as irrigation water, is a challenge even for the most resilient local institutions as it is mobile, variable, inherently asymmetric and tends to be in control of headenders. (Komakech et al., 2012;Lein and Tagseth, 2009; Agrawal, 2001). 3Often the degree of water scarcity affects the rules, and their stringency, around water use (Tang, 1992). Free-riding becomes more common when pressure on the resource augments. In common property regimes there is no individual ownership over the resource at stake, but membership and benefits are harnessed through the fulfillment of certa...

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“…In the project, there was a conscious policy of creating ethnically mixed teams, and this team, in Kokrajhar, comprised a pair, one Bodo and one Muslim, both men. The additional lens of research assistants' and translators' subjectivities also makes them active producers of knowledge in the research process (Anwar & Viqar, 2017;Caretta, 2014;Scott et al, 2006;Temple & Edwards, 2002). For instance, after a particularly charged discussion about politics at a former relief camp for Muslims, both my Muslim colleague and I agreed that had our Bodo colleague been around, people may have been more reluctant to open up.…”

Section: Going Backmentioning

confidence: 99%

Me again: Fieldwork, practice and returning

Sharma

2018

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Many researchers return to field sites that are previously known in different capacities, thus upturning traditional notions of the "field," particularly in qualitative fieldwork, of unknown places whose depths the researcher encounters anew. Returning in a different capacity affects not just the researcher, but also participants, and raises questions about research ethics with regard to changing positionality. This paper looks at the process of returning to a field that is already "known," not just through books and writing, but through first-hand experience. It explores the dynamics underlying the process of returning as a researcher, when one has a previously established identity in a place, in this case as a development worker. The paper will explore the nuances of attempting to bridge the divide between being a development worker and then a student doing ethnographic fieldwork in Assam. It will debate whether it is possible, or useful, to abandon one role for another. It also looks at the way a change in role affects the way we gain access, as well as how returning as a student reveals certain blind spots in the understanding of the field as it was known. Finally, the paper attempts to understand how changing positionality affects ethical concerns, such as those of how to engage as an outsider, and whether each return is marked by a different process. K E Y W O R D S positionality, research ethics, India, fieldwork, methodology

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Situated knowledge in cross-cultural, cross-language research: a collaborative reflexive analysis of researcher, assistant and participant subjectivities

Cited by 108 publications

References 23 publications

Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems inEastAfrica

Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems inEastAfrica

Managing variability and scarcity. An analysis of Engaruka: A Maasai smallholder irrigation farming community

Me again: Fieldwork, practice and returning

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