Page 226 - Cultural Theory

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••• Feminist Knowledge and Socio-cultural Research •••

work of Trinh (1989, 1991). Alasuutari, Gray and Hermes tell us that hybrid theorizing
and reflexivity are crucial to better understand contemporary culture and society,
especially when we consider the ways in which such hybrid research can ‘understand
culture as a process of meaning making, and to give attention to the power relations
that set boundaries to those processes’ (1998: 9).
Standpoint epistemologies as articulated by early proponents such as Sandra
Harding (1991), Patricia Hill-Collins (1990), Dorothy Smith (1989), and Hilary Rose
(1983) pose a challenge to and resist orthodox scientific empiricist ways of practising
research. Indeed, for Harding, standpoint feminism is ‘a moral and political act of
commitment to understand the world from the position of the socially subjugated’
(1986: 149). It involves a process of developing better knowledge of the social, and
of culture as a process of meaning making, from direct engagement with people.
The work of Trinh (1991) further developed this process for, in undoing the realist
ethnography project, she seeks to show that there is no single overriding vision of
the world but rather multiple realities, multiple standpoints, and multiple meanings.
Such reflexivity led to the acknowledgement that the ‘real’ world can still be recov-
ered through ethnographic work, through a postmodern ‘multinational, multi-
cultural gaze that probes, yet goes beyond local markets while it remains anchored
in the interactional experiences of the reflexive ethnographer’ (Denzin, 1997: 19).
What Denzin (1997) and Alasuutari, et al. (1998) call ‘hybrid texts’ are emerging;
these are outcomes of research that engage with alternative forms of representation,
be it visual, performative, or literary/poetic.
In this chapter, hybrid methodologies are illustrated in the author’s ethnno-
graphic, participatory action research work with women working in the sex industry
and communities affected by prostitution; and the re-presentation of ethnographic
work through photographic work and live art/performance. The re-presentation of
the author’s ethnographic work through live art/performance was undertaken with
Sara Giddens. The work with sex workers, communities and young people was under-
taken in collaboration with Rosie Campbell. This hybrid form is defined as ethno-
mimesis; the mimetic re-telling of life stories in visual, artistic form and a focus upon
the transformative, change causing gesture involved in participatory action research.
Participatory action research seeks to understand the world from the perspective of
the participants. Fals Borda quotes what Agnes Heller termed ‘symmetric reciprocity’
as a key tension in PAR, in order to arrive at a ‘subject–subject horizontal or sym-
metric relationship’ (Fals Borda, 1999: 13). Additionally, recognizing this symmetry
involves developing what Gramsci called ‘good sense’ and, achieving authentic ‘par-
ticipation’. This necessarily involves reporting or communicating results/findings in
ways that are understandable to the participants. A key aspect is praxis as purposeful
knowledge involving interpretation, action, and transformation.
At every phase of the PAR model there is the possibility for change. PAR can vali-
date the experiences of the participants and also of grassroots knowledge. In the
process of involving participants as co-researchers, this validation is transformed into
constructive and creative responses for them and their communities. Outcomes of
participatory research can inform, educate, remind, challenge and empower both

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