Reflections on Positionality

Reﬂections
on Positionality:
pros, cons and workarounds from an intense ﬁeldwork

Eduardo Gonçalves
http://about.me/cuducos

Marcelo Fagundes
marcelofagundes@insitum.com

How might we engage direct sellers in
a digital learning platform for an ongoing
online training support about cosmetics?

Project scope

3

2 phases ethnographic research
Co-creation

Ethnographic
research
(generative)

PHASE 1

PHASE 2
Concepts

User’s
needs

Hyposthesis

Ethnographic
research
(exploratory)

Analysis

Concepts’
integration

Beneﬁts

Design
principles

Users’ proﬁles
and opportunities

Analysis

Learning
platform

60+ people
(mainly women from social-economic levels)

17 cities
(from 5 different Brazilian macro regions)

2 research teams
(one female researcher, one male researcher
and one person from the client each team)

And some unexpected stories...

Project scope


We got back to some participants from the first phase during the second phase.
Due to that it was possible to compare and analyze the influence the researchers
could have had in participants life and draw a set of reflections about the role of
the ethnographer in terms of positionality.

8

Project scope


We got back to some participants from the first phase during the second phase.
Due to that it was possible to compare and analyze the influence the researchers
could have had in participants life and draw a set of reflections about the role of
the ethnographer in terms of positionality.

9

“

[Postmodern] ethnographers question the ability of any method to represent
‘reality’ accurately on three grounds: there is no one fixed ‘reality’ in the
postmodern understanding of nature to capture ‘accurately’; all methods are
cultural and personal constructs, collecting partial and selective knowledge;
and since all knowledge is selective, research can offer only a socially
constructed account of the world.”
Brewer (2000:22-23)

“

Turning in upon ourselves as researchers makes us look subjectively and
reflexively at how we are positioned.”
Chriseri-Strater (1996:119)

Our own position during the ﬁeldwork
as researchers could have inﬂuence
over the access to data.

Our own position during the ﬁeldwork
as researchers could have inﬂuence
over the access to data.
• Ethnography and the Client
• Ethnography and Gender
• Ethnography and Social Positions

Ethnography and the Client

It’s recommended to not disclose the name
of the client or it’s presence (if it happened)
during corporate ethnography, since it could
inhibit participants.

15

“

You need to tell them
that it must change!”

“

Sorry for the inconvenience.
I was afraid. You know
that’s too much violence...
And it’s difﬁcult to trust
people nowadays.”


Client’s ethical principles

Asked to discloser
name and presence

Concerns for the research team

18


19



Asked to discloser

Asked to discloser

name and presence


X

name and presence

Better access within the ethnography;
Encouraged participants to talk more, more
passionate, and more in-depth about the
exact topics that we were looking for

Ethnography and Gender

The research theme and the social context led
us to think that going to the ﬁeld with a men
on the team could inhibit participants.

21

Lower socio economic
level women
(sexist environment dominated by men)

Strategies
• Assumed secondary roles in order
to fade out during the interactions;
• Slightly pretended to be more feminine
(or tried to avoid being explicitly masculine).


Theme and social context

Men in the
research team


25


26



Men in the

Men in the

research team


X

research team

Our positionality as male researchers may already
be enough to inﬂuence the research with this
women proﬁle. However, if we succeeded in this
project (and the project results strongly suggest
we did) we believe that gender was a minor issue.

Actually, these previous issues were not as important as we
thought. In addition to what we pondered perviously, there
were issues we were not able to foresee that were pretty
helpful to the success of the project.

3
Ethnography and Social Positions


Even if the use of basic ethnography
techniques were as useful as important,
there are some issues that are just
impossible to dismiss: the research team
was Caucasian, some of us were males and
some women we were talking to were
victims of domestic violence with their
husbands being the aggressor.

29

“

My son was shot due to his involvement with drugs,
with dealers… but you, you don't have this problem,
you studied, you have a job, you should get married.”

“

You shouldn't be so attached to any boyfriend,
you have a college degree, you have a good job,
you’re a an independent woman!”


32

Participants and their
social context

Different
social position

Differences inherent to the research
teams also – and surprisingly – worked as
positive aspect in terms of positionality
and access our participants.


We clearly felt that in the beginning of each
interaction participants were suspicious
about what was going on. On the one hand,
probably due to their context. On the other
hand, because of the deeply interest that we
were having on their lives.

3

“

The KP [Kottai Pillaimar] women also wondered what I was getting out of the
whole exercise. ‘Well, at least a Ph.D.,’ I would joke, but they were not
convinced. Why should anyone leave family and city comforts to spend weeks at
a stretch wandering around the KP villages? Nonetheless, once they had got the
drift of the questions I asked, their responses were quick. They felt that I was
genuinely interested in what they had to say, I remembered the smallest things
they told me and followed up next time. We were soon locked jointly in the
enterprise of discovering their history. Reciprocity was not an issue any more.
Kamala Ganesh (1993:136)

“

That's not how it works here, if we
broke up, he'll beat me, even threaten
me with a machete or something.”


36

Participants and their
social context

Not used to have
anyone truly listening

Deep level of access to someone's life
because visiting them was something unique
for them, was something that had the
potential to value them – and they felt that.

Only by doing our job, we could not avoid to have influence
over the people we were talking to; we changed our source.
It leads us to reflect on the influence that our practice have
on the research object and on the research results itself
– and all the ethical issues involved on that.

Ethnography and its Impacts

1
The peculiarities and contingencies
of each ﬁeldwork can challenge the
rules as well as its effects.

39

“

[methodological guidelines] are like signpost or a map to provide some
direction and give us clues as to where to go when we get lost.”
De Vaus suggests (2002:7)

“

You should not try to follow each step slavishly. Use the method: do not let it use you.”
De Vaus suggests (2002:7)


2
To what extent is it possible to
consider that we got to know the
lifestyle of our participants?
Since now they could be different people from what they were before, and since
the very fact of doing the research with them was the catalyst of that change.

42


43

3
Do we have the right to get into someone else
life and, without notice, drive them to such a
deep impact as we did during this project?

All those are unavoidable consequences of the work we do
– and we cannot afford to do it without reﬂecting on them.

Thank you.
Eduardo Gonçalves
http://about.me/cuducos

Marcelo Fagundes
marcelofagundes@insitum.com

References

Asad, T. (1994). Ethnographic, Representation, Statistics, and Modern Power. Social Research, 61(1).
Back, L. (1993). Gendered Participation. Masculinity and Fieldwork in a South London Adolescent Community. In Diane Bell, Pat Caplan and
Wazir Jahan Karim (eds.) Gendered Fields. Women, Men and Ethnography. London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.
Brewer, J. D. (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Chiseri-Strater, E. (1996). Turning in Upon Ourselves. Positionality, Subjectivity and Reﬂexivity. In. Ed. Peter Mortensen and Gesa Kirsch (eds.).
Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English.
De Vaus, D. (2002). Surveys in Social Research. 5 ed. London: Routledge.
Ganesh, K. (1993). Breaching the Wall of Difference. Fieldwork and a Personal Journey to Srivaikuntam, Tamilnadu. In Diane Bell, Pat Caplan and
Wazir Jahan Karim (eds.) Gendered Fields. Women, Men and Ethnography. London: Routledge.
Harrington, B. (2002). Obtrusiveness as Strategy in Ethnographic Research. Qualitative Sociology, 25(1).
Kvale, S. and Brinkman, S. (2009) Interviews. Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: Sage.
Ladner, S. (forthcoming 2013). Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector. (Sample chapters shared by the
author as a work-in-progress).
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Paciﬁc. An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagos of Melanesian
New Guinea. London: Routledge.

Web resources
Schiffman, J. and Civelekoglu, D. (2012). The Refocus Group. (Conference at IDSA 2012 Midwest Design Dialogue Conference).
Available: http://vimeo.com/42413053. Last accessed 10th July 2013.

Reflections on Positionality

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (6)

Similar to Reflections on Positionality (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Reflections on Positionality