Qualitative methods Flashcards
name the 3 research paradigms
- ontology - what can be known about reality
- epistemology - relationship between researcher and what can be known
- methodology - how to go about studying what can be known
Key principles of interpretism
- meaning cannot be understood without context
- requires empathy - Researcher needs to immerse themselves within the community in order to learn and interpret
- listen, look, question, interpret
- self reflection
How is knowledge socially constructed
- Knowledge is ever-changing
- Power systems are in play
- language is not neutral
for example homosexuality
How does homosexuality lead to different ways of acting
- sick - seek professional help
- devient - conceal, feel shame
- personal choice - pride, advocate agency
- natural - enjoy and be open
Similarities of social constructionism vs interpretism
- concerned with meaning
- interested how people make sense of the world
- thick description
- events occurring in the naturalistic environment
- what is it like to
- not interested in cause and effect
- not interested in generalizing
Interpretive understanding language
- vehicle for getting the facts
- route for underlying realities
- window to access facts/ experiences/ reality
social constructionism understanding language
- not neutral
- constructs reality
- must be the object of study
- concerned with the broader patterns of social meaning
- e.g. the word rainbow
Qualitative frameworks and approaches
- Post-colonial methodologies - dominant and segregation
- Participatory action research (PAR) - produces knowledge
- Ethnography - culture
- Discourse analysis - language
- Narrative approaches - stories in larger context
- Feminist research - theoretical and political analysis
How is research never neutral
- topic being chosen
2. topics being published
How is research political
- advances in agenda
- silences topics
- promotes interest
Questions to ask around research/ politics behind
- Who evaluates?
- Who benefits?
- Findings?
- Funding?
- who’s values are promoted?
- Who is publishing?
Power in research enterprise
- mainly white, working-class males - even in feminist research
- sample = disadvantaged and marginalized populations meaning over-repusentation of the poor and marginalized
The research context
macro (historical, political discourses in place) vs micro (researchers anxieties, personality thoughts etc)
Interviewer- participant relationship
researcher relationship -> data collected
Three central premises to standpoint methodologies
- Seeks to uncover/ critique hidden power dynamics, by conducting research at a deep level rather than surface level
- Working in the interests of the oppressed, disempowered and disadvantaged
- Aims to produce change
4 phases of standpoint methodologies
- Disillusionment - contestation of colonization of black experience by white researchers
- Reative engagement - Criticizing white research assumption
- Constructive self definition - advocating on African world view (cultural norms and traditions) = African presence in research
- Development of emancipatory discourse - promotion and respect of African values - e.g. respect of traditional healers
what does African scholarship prioritize over scientific objectivity?
African humanism
Key premises of African scholarship
- benefits the masses and not for individual gain
- research is a communal process - participant action research would be applicable
- Problematizes the construction of race and the relationship of race to economic and discriminatory practices
- Socially relevant research
- traditional healers
- cultural appropriateness
- intersectional later of the oppressed
The politics of racial identity
whiteness and blackness do not exist outside the colonial encounter - they are mutually dependent
- superiority of whiteness requires systematic devaluation of Blacks
- blackness is predicted on the fact of not being white
What is feminism?
- both theory and practice
- the study of gender relations and woman oppression
- form of collective action with the aim of unseating oppressive (gendered) power relations
What are the different types of feminism? (5)
- liberal feminism - equal rights and opportunities for women
- marxist feminism - argues that women’s oppressions are rooted in capitalist economic system making them economically dependent on men
- radical feminism - gay rights movement. Women’s oppression stems from system of patriarchy making women’s subordination in maintained
- poststructural feminism
- African feminism - argues that the experiences of black women cannot be understood by traditional white feminism
Poststructuralist feminism
- uses post structuralist theories of language theories and subjectivity to theories gender relations
- deconstructs the ‘fixedness’ of the category woman
- goals include developing understandings that are historically, socially and culturally specific and are related to changing the oppressive gender relations
- challenges the idea of a ‘fixed identity’ - they are fluid and changing
- resisting dominant discourses
- the body = a site for inscription of masculinity/ femininity
The difference between (1) gendered (2) sexed (3) sexualized
- sexed - presumed biological difference
- gendered - presumptions about dress, roles, behavior
- sexualized - named heterosexual/ homosexual based on presumed sexual desires
Feminist waves
1st wave = feminism empiricism (late 1800’s and early 1900’s) - LIBERAL
- women’s suffrage
- property rights
2nd wave = feminist standpoint (1960’s and 1970s) - RADICAL
- overthrowing patriarchy
- gender public and political issue
3rd wave = feminism relativism (postmodern 1990’s onwards)
- feminist post-modern (post-structural)
- critique of scientific enquiry
- multiple identities and subjectivities (African feminism)
Similarities and differences of feminism waves
Similarities:
- stop mythes of gender difference
- add women to research
- not a critique of science itself
Differences:
- They great broader from 1st to 3rd wave. 1st wave = all about the vote
- first wave was addressing the basic issues as that what was needed at the time, the second and third wave then build on this
What is privilege
gives advantages, favours, and benefits to member of dominant groups at the expense of member of the target group
What is oppression
combination of prejudice and institutional power which creates a system that discriminates against target groups
Who was ‘intersectionality’ coined by?
Kimberle Crenshaw
- the person who gave it a name - but it existed before
Crenshaw (1989) - what are the three categories?
important for the exams
- Structural intersectionality - access to resources, language barriers (e.g. not being included because you don’t speak the language)
- availability does not mean accessibility - Political intersectionality - women of color are situated in at least two subordinate groups - political conflicting agenda
- anti-racism are feminism are limited, even on their own terms - Representational intersectionality - how are women of color represented in cultural imagery?
- race and gender is socially constructed and does not mean it is not ‘real’ or has no significance in our world
What is intersectionality
- How different identities intersect, are entangled, mutually constitute and reinforce each other
- Intersectionality = racism x sexism
- an additive approach
Matrix of domination
- All identities based on social group membership interact with each other to create life situations that are qualitatively different depending on ones location in the matrix
- Each matrix = various oppressions which are all interlinking
what are the 4 different matrix
- disciplinary
- hegemonic
- interpersonal
- structural
What is disciplinary matrix
- exists to manage oppression
- controls human behavior through routinization, rationalization and surveillance
- racism and sexism = hidden behind efficiency, rationality and equal treatment
- e.g. the university system
- change through insider resistance
what is hegemonic matrix
- brings all the matrix together
- makes oppressions legitimate
- consists of languages, images, values and ideas
- e.g. TV, other media, religious teachings
- change through critique and self re-education
what is interpersonal matrix
- our personal relationships and daily interactions
- ‘how am I upholding my own oppression’
- e.g. xenaphobia, heterosexual women discriminating against LGBT
what is structural matrix
- law, religion, political systems, economy
- sets structural parameters that organize power relations
- e.g. the apartheid government system
- slow change, wars and revolutions
