Roisin Ryan-Flood - Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process

Feminist research is informed by a history of breaking silences, of demanding that women's voices be heard, recorded and included in wider intellectual genealogies and histories. This has led to an emphasis on voice and speaking out in the research endeavour. Moments of secrecy and silence are less often addressed. This gives rise to a number of questions. What are the silences, secrets, omissions and the political consequences of such moments? What particular dilemmas and the constraints do they represent or entail? What are their implications for research praxis? Are such moments always indicative of voicelessness or powerlessness? Or may they also constitute a productive moment in the research encounter? Contributors to this volume were invited to reflect on these questions. The resulting chapters are a fascinating collection of insights into the research process, making an important contribution to theoretical and empirical debates about epistemology, subjectivity and identity in research. Researchers often face difficult dilemmas about who to represent and how, what to omit and what to include. This book explores such questions in a stimulating collection of essays from international scholars.

Risn Ryan-Flood is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. Her research interests include gender, sexuality, kinship and migration. She is the author of Lesbian Motherhood: Gender, Families and Sexual Citizenship (2009). Her current research explores sexuality, citizenship and diaspora.

Rosalind Gill is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at King's College, London. She is author of Gender and the Media (2007) and is currently writing a book about mediated intimacy.

Edited by Maureen McNeil,
Institute of Women's Studies, Lancaster University
Lynne Pearce
Department of English, Lancaster University

Other books in the series include:

Feminism and Autobiography
Texts, theories, methods
Edited by Tess Cosslett, Celia Lury
and Penny Summerfield

Advertising and
Consumer Citizenship
Gender, images and rights
Anne M. Cronin

Haunted Nations
The colonial dimensions of
multiculturalisms
Sneja Gunew

The Rhetorics of Feminism
Readings in contemporary cultural
theory and the popular press
Lynne Pearce

Judging the Image
Art, value, law
Alison Young

Violent Femmes
Women as spies in popular culture
Rosie White

Pregnancy, Risk and Biopolitics
On the threshold of the living subject
Lorna Weir

Arab, Muslim, Woman
Voice and vision in postcolonial
literature and film
Lindsey Moore

Secrecy and Silence in the
Research Process
Feminist reflections
Risn Ryan-Flood and Rosalind Gill

Feminism, Culture and
Embodied Practice
The rhetorics of comparison
Carolyn Pedwell

Sociability, Sexuality, Self
Relationality and
Individualization
Sasha Roseneil

Working with Affect in
Feminist Readings
Disturbing differences
Marianne Liljestrm and
Susanna Paasonen

First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

2010 Risn Ryan-Flood and Rosalind Gill for selection and editorial material; the contributors for their contributions

Typeset in Times New Roman by
Taylor & Francis Books
Printed and bound by
the MPG Books Group in the UK

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Secrecy and silence in the research process ; feminist reflections / [edited by]
Risn Ryan-Flood [and] Rosalind Gill.

p. cm (Transformations)

1. Feminism-Research. 2. Social sciences-Research. 3. Feminist theory. I.
Ryan-Flood, Risn. II. Gill, Rosalind (Rosalind Clair)

HQ1180.S436 2009

305.4201-dc22

2009009374

ISBN10: 0-415-45214-7 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-92704-4 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-45214-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-92704-5 (ebk)

RISN RYAN-FLOOD AND ROSALIND GILL

JANE L. PARPART

HENRIETTA L. MOORE

JACQUELINE SANCHEZ TAYLOR AND JULIA O'CONNELL DAVIDSON

SABINE GRENZ

MEG BARKER AND DARREN LANGDRIDGE

CHRISTINA SCHARFF

BIPASHA AHMED

KAREN THROSBY AND DEBRA GIMLIN

KATE O'BRIEN

REBEKAH WILSON

KATHY DAVIS

ANN PHOENIX

FEONA ATTWOOD

RISN RYAN-FLOOD

MIRIAM GLUCKSMANN

GAIL LEWIS

ROSALIND GILL

SUKI ALI

BRUNA SEU

DEBORAH FINDING

LYNDA JOHNSTON

Bipasha Ahmed is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of East London. Her research interests are in the area of critical psychology, particularly issues relating to race, class and gender. She is currently involved in projects on understanding experiences of domestic and sexual violence within South Asian Communities. Publications include recent articles in Feminism and Psychology, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology