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Standing Out and Blending In: Contact-Based Research, Ethics, and Positionality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

Carolyn E. Holmes Open the ORCID record for Carolyn E. Holmes [Opens in a new window]
Carolyn E. Holmes*
Affiliation:
Mississippi State University and University of Pretoria
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Abstract

This article explores the ethical difficulties that arise because of the interaction between fieldwork practitioners and their sites, in terms of the positionality of the researcher. What are the ethics of blending in or of standing out? This question stems from my experience of 12 months of fieldwork in South Africa in two distinct locales and among two different populations, one in which I could “pass” and another in which I was marked as various degrees of “outsider.” Drawing on this fieldwork, as well as an overview of the literature in political science on positionality, I argue that our discipline—because of the way it shapes interactions and research outcomes—must take positionality seriously in ethical training and practice.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 443 - 447
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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