Feminist Research Methodology

Making Meanings of Meaning-making

Maithree Wickramasinghe

• Publisher: Zubaan Books
• eBook ISBN:
  9789384757717
• Year: 2015

This book focuses on feminist research methodology, exploring and analysing its constituting methods, theory, ontology, epistemology and ethics and politics, as well as the significance of the subjectivity of the researcher in research issues relating to women, gender and feminism in Sri Lanka. The book examines ways of meaning-making for political, ideological and social change, and constructs an example of feminist research praxis.Using this South Asian country as a case study, the author looks at the means by which researchers in this field inhabit, engage with and represent the multiple realities of women and society in Sri Lanka. In analysing what constitutes feminist research methodology in a transitional country, the book links local research practices with Western feminist approaches, taking into account the commonalities, distinctions and specificities of working in a South Asian context.With an emphasis on general issues and debates in global feminist theory and methodology, the book explores the issues of reflexivity, standpoint, gender, women's agency, empiricism, and the feminist politics of Marxism and democracy, positivism, induction, deduction, post-modernism and postcolonialism.Engaging with and re-conceptualising three traditionally different types of research — women's studies, gender studies and feminist studies — Feminist Research Methodology provides a framework for researching feminist issues. Applicable at both local and global levels, this original methodological framework will be of value to researchers working in any context.

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Book
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Note to the Reader
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Tables and Diagrams
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Making Meanings
• PART I: METHODOLOGY MATTERS
• 1. The Local Context: Archaeology of Women's Research Activism
• 2. A Paradigm: Women - A Paradigm in Global Knowledge Production
• PART II: ASPECTS OF FEMINIST RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• 3. Subjectivity: Refl ecting on the Self as/in Making Meaning
• 4. An Ontology: Research Realities in Meaning-making
• 5. An Epistemology: Making Meanings of Being/Doing Gender
• 6. A Method: Literature Reviewing as Making Meaning
• 7. Theory: Making and Unmaking Meaning in Theory
• 8. Ethics/Politics:Feminist Ethics/Politics in Meaning-making
• Conclusions: Towards a Feminist Research Methodological Matrix - Making Meanings of Meaning-making
• Notes
• Bibliography