ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
FEMINIST THEORY
FEMINIST PRAXIS
FEMINIST PRAXIS
Research, Theory and Epistemology
in Feminist Sociology
Edited by
LIZ STANLEY
Volume 13
First published in 1990
This edition first published in 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
1990 Liz Stanley
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.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-415-53401-7 (Set)
eISBN: 978-0-203-08796-1 (Set)
ISBN: 978-0-415-63513-4 (Volume 13)
eISBN: 978-0-203-09402-0 (Volume 13)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
Feminist Praxis
Feminist social scientists often find that carrying feminism into practice in their research is neither easy nor straightforward. Designed precisely with feminist researchers in mind, Feminist Praxis gives detailed analytic accounts of particular examples of feminist research, showing how feminist epistemology can translate into concrete feminist research practices.
The contributors, all experts in their field, give practical examples of feminist research processes, covering colonialism, child-minding, gay men, feminist social work, cancer, working with young girls using drama, Marilyn Monroe, statistics even the writing and reading of research accounts. These detailed accounts are located in relation to the position of feminism and of women generally in the academic world, and looked at in the light of discussions, debates, and controversies about feminist methodology across several disciplines.
Feminist Praxis is unique in combining theoretical discussion of feminist methodology with detailed accounts of practical research processes. This blend of the practical and the theoretical will make it an invaluable text for feminists carrying out research at all levels, and it will also appeal to those interested in the relationship between theory, method, and feminist epistemology.
Feminist Praxis
Research, Theory and Epistemology
in Feminist Sociology
Edited by
Liz Stanley
First published 1990
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
1990 Liz Stanley
Typeset by LaserScript Limited, Mitcham, Surrey
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackays of Chatham PLC, Chatham, Kent
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized 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
Feminist praxis: research, theory and epistemology in feminist sociology
1. Feminism
I. Stanley, Liz, 1947-
305.42
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Feminist praxis: research, theory, and epistemology in feminist sociology /
(ed.), Liz Stanley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Women's studies-Methodology. 2. Feminist-Research-Methodology.
I. Stanley, Liz, 1947-
HQ1180.F46 1990
305.42072-dc20
89-24200
CIP
ISBN 0-415-04186-4
ISBN 0-415-04202-X (pbk)
What is a literary critic, a black woman critic, a black feminist literary critic? The adjectives mount up, defining, qualifying, the activity. How does one distinguish them? The need to articulate a theory, to categorize the activities is a good part of the activity itself to the point where I wonder how we ever get around to doing anything else. What do these categories tell anyone about my method? I'm irked, weighed down by Foucault's library as tiers of books written on epistemology, ontology and technique peer down at me. Can one theorize effectively about an evolving process? Are the labels informative or primarily a way of nipping the question in the bud? What are the philosophical assumptions behind my praxis? I think how the articulation of a theory is a gathering place, sometimes a point of rest as the process rushes on, insisting that you follow . But I do have fun doing this, though, humbled again by the terror of the blank page in front of me, it's a mystery to me why.
Barbara Christian (1985) Black Feminist Criticism, New York: Pergamon, pp. x, xi and xv.
Contents
Brief biographies
Chung Yuen Kay is a Malaysian Chinese who lives in Singapore with her spouse. She has just finished her Ph.D. thesis, an ethnography of women workers in a high-technology factory in Singapore; and now considers herself to be freelancing. She is an interpretive/phenomenological sociologist who seeks always to understand how women themselves understand and handle domination/power in everyday lives and everyday ways. She is also interested in the development of feminist ethnography, women and work (all kinds of it), and the interaction of gender and ethnicity.
Denise Farran's first degree was in sociology at the University of Manchester, where she also completed an M.A. thesis dealing with biographies of Ruth Ellis and Marilyn Monroe. She is currently lecturing at Brunei University, and completing a Ph.D. thesis at Manchester on Ruth Ellis and other women murderers. Her research interests include textual analysis of research documents such as fieldwork notes, interview scripts and questionnaires. She lives in the countryside near Macclesfield. Her first baby, Adam, was born in summer 1989.
Clara Greed is a senior lecturer in the Department of Surveying at Bristol Polytechnic. She originally studied town planning in the late 1960s when there were relatively few women in the land-use professions. She was then employed in town planning in local government. She now teaches town planning, and more recently the social aspects of planning and development to surveying students. As a result of all these experiences she has sought to make sense of her life and discovered, in her thirties, that a feminist perspective contributes a great deal towards that objective. She continues to apply this new awareness to urban spatial issues, and is currendy completing her doctorate on the position of women in surveying education and practice, and writing a book on the topic.