Thinking intersectionally with/through narrative methodologies. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chadwick, Rachelle
• Is Part Of: Agenda. Volume 31:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 5
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: narrative -- intersectionality -- voice -- dialogical -- qualitative; Feminism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 305.4
• DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2017.1341172
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-0950

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the potentially productive relations and tensions between narrative methodologies and intersectional research. The following questions are explored: How might narrative approaches be productive tools for intersectional research? How does intersectionality challenge and potentially extend current modes of narrative inquiry? What are the tensions of thinking intersectionality with/through narrative and vice versa? While a substantial (and contested) literature exists on intersectionality, particularly in feminist theory, there is currently a lack of clarity about how to 'do' intersectionality at the level of research practice and methodology. Several conceptual frameworks have been developed, including those by Crenshaw (1991), McCall (2005) and Prins (2006), but their methodological implications remain vague. Furthermore, although narrative has previously been put forward as a method of analysis particularly well suited to intersectional research (Phoenix and Pattynama, 2006; Ludvig, 2006; Cole, 2009), the rationale and implications of this merger have not been well developed. This article explores the entanglements (Barad, 2007) produced by putting narrative inquiry and intersectional approaches in conversation with one another. It argues that narrative approaches potentially offer rich methodological tools for intersectional analyses, particularly in relation to their ability to grant epistemic privilege to marginalised voices (Mohanty, 2013) and trace the multiple and contradictory stories and experiences of research participants and their emphasis (in some variants) on the ethics of listening (Gilligan et al, 2003). Intersectional approaches also challenge and extend narrative methodologies in fruitful directions. In particular, intersectional thinking shows the limitations of focusing only on individual experience and textual story-telling, and highlights the methodological importance of finding ways to explore and analyse the material, structural and political realities that co-construct lives/narratives.