Seminar Three: Gender, Power, Embodiment in Research
|
10:30 - 18:00 |
|
To provide feedback on this seminar please visit: Seminar Feedback
Thank-you to all who presented and attended this event, please find the presentations below:
This seminar will focus on the importance of gender, embodiment and power in the relationship between the researcher and the researched. Qualitative research has regularly pointed to the centrality of the relationship between researcher and researched for the knowledge produced. Gender, power and embodiment are central elements to consider when collecting and analysing material gathered in the field. Power is vital for the relationship between researcher and researched. Feminist researchers have for instance argued that traditionally the researcher is in a more powerful position than the research subject. The research subject of feminist research, commonly women, needed to be empowered and given a voice. However in newer research it became clear that not in all instances the persons researched are women and/or in need of empowerment. For instance in a business context researchers often work with people in elite positions who hold more power than the researcher.
Power might also enter the researcher/researched relationship in form of experiences of for instance gender discrimination or when the researched tries to provoke a reaction from the researcher. Embodiment and assumptions about people in their bodies are equally central for these positioning processes. There are many explicit and implicit assumptions about researchers which influence the interaction between researcher and researched. For example women who do research on gender are often assumed to be feminist while men are often seen as being gay. Men might act differently depending on whether the researcher is perceived to be a man or a woman. It is also interesting to explore what happens if bodies change in the context of research for instance when a woman is pregnant or a person does participatory research in the fitness industry. How do researchers experience these changes and how can they be theorised in research? Gender, power and embodiment are vital when it comes to theorising the relationship between the researcher and the researched and this seminar will focus on these interactions.
Keynote speakers:
- Prof. Mats Alvesson, Department of Business Administration, Lund University
‘Reflexive Methodology’
- Prof. Catherine Cassell, Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester.
‘Constructing diverse identities: some reflections on the role of the interviewer and interviewee in organizational research’
Invited speakers:
- Dr. JK Tina Basi, Director, Intel & Mehfil Enterprise
‘Identity at Work and Play, Conducting Ethnography for Commercial Enterprise’
- Rachel Dunkley Jones, The Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business, London Business School
‘“I don’t want to start getting upset”: Emotional Labour and Identity Work in Qualitative Research’
- Belinda Parmar, Planning Director, Saatchi & Saatchi, London
‘Xploring: The Power of Becoming an "Insider’’ '
- Dr. Karen Throsby, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
‘“I’m not like you”: What difference does embodied difference make?’
Time: 10:30 - 18:00
Date: 5th of June 2008
Contact: Dr Elisabeth Kelan, The Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business, London Business School: ekelan at london dot edu
