Reflexivity in practice
This project aims to develop methods to operationalise reflexivity accessible to a broad and diverse audience. It therefore supplements approaches to reflexivity as reflection on one's position to demonstrate theoretically sound research strategy one can implement at different stages of a research project. Through this, it contributes to the emerging body of literature I refer to as "reflexivity in practice".
Doing so, this project aims to address a theoretical and epistemological challenge. The idea that knowledge and discourse are neither neutral nor a priori emancipatory is now commonly accepted in social sciences. It is, for example, a core premise of the body of theories often referred to as ‘critical theories’.
This theoretical posture, however, raises a tension that has not been given due attention: considering the invisible social dimensions of discourse and knowledge, how can we ensure that the knowledge we produce is not only empirically valid and theoretically coherent but also challenges rather than reproduces the issues we aim to oppose? Indeed, while denouncing the harmful socio-political effects of knowledge in general, critical scholars exclude the knowledge they produce from the scope of their scrutiny. This runs the risk that these theories reproduce in an even more insidious way the phenomena they aim to challenge, precisely because they present themselves as challengers of the socio-political order, as highlighted by a growing body of literature (Allen 2017; Duzgun 2018; Kapoor 2017; Alejandro 2018). This research project aims at transforming the concerns regarding the mismatch between critical theories and research practices into a methodological programme and addressing it with practical solutions.
As such, this project also has a methodological and practical objective. This project emerged out of the frustration I encountered as a junior researcher and teacher. On the one hand, I was theoretically and epistemologically grounded in discourse theory and critical qualitative research and thus working with the premise that language organises our perception and produces socio-political effects. On the other hand, due to the lack of dedicated pedagogical and methodological material, I struggled to tackle this problem in my own research practices. This absence also made me feel unequipped to support students/junior researchers in their research journey. I needed tools to help them overcome some of the recurrent challenges they faced regarding reflexivity and language. And I developed this research programme with this practical objective in mind.
Different publications have already come out of this project:
Doing so, this project aims to address a theoretical and epistemological challenge. The idea that knowledge and discourse are neither neutral nor a priori emancipatory is now commonly accepted in social sciences. It is, for example, a core premise of the body of theories often referred to as ‘critical theories’.
This theoretical posture, however, raises a tension that has not been given due attention: considering the invisible social dimensions of discourse and knowledge, how can we ensure that the knowledge we produce is not only empirically valid and theoretically coherent but also challenges rather than reproduces the issues we aim to oppose? Indeed, while denouncing the harmful socio-political effects of knowledge in general, critical scholars exclude the knowledge they produce from the scope of their scrutiny. This runs the risk that these theories reproduce in an even more insidious way the phenomena they aim to challenge, precisely because they present themselves as challengers of the socio-political order, as highlighted by a growing body of literature (Allen 2017; Duzgun 2018; Kapoor 2017; Alejandro 2018). This research project aims at transforming the concerns regarding the mismatch between critical theories and research practices into a methodological programme and addressing it with practical solutions.
As such, this project also has a methodological and practical objective. This project emerged out of the frustration I encountered as a junior researcher and teacher. On the one hand, I was theoretically and epistemologically grounded in discourse theory and critical qualitative research and thus working with the premise that language organises our perception and produces socio-political effects. On the other hand, due to the lack of dedicated pedagogical and methodological material, I struggled to tackle this problem in my own research practices. This absence also made me feel unequipped to support students/junior researchers in their research journey. I needed tools to help them overcome some of the recurrent challenges they faced regarding reflexivity and language. And I developed this research programme with this practical objective in mind.
Different publications have already come out of this project:
- Audrey Alejandro, Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity, European Journal of International Relations, 27, 1, 2021, 150-174.
- Audrey Alejandro, How to Problematise Categories: Building the Methodological Toolbox for Linguistic Reflexivity, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2021, online.
- Audrey Alejandro and Eleanor Knott, How to Pay Attention to the Words We Use: The Reflexive Review as a Method for Linguistic Reflexivity, International Studies Review, 24, 3 [online first]