Positionality in Time and Over Time: Moving from Static Reflexivity to Dynamic Reflexivity.

Description

Humans are dynamic, evolving beings, whose changing perceptions influence how we classify the world over time. In this talk, we discuss static positionality statements in relation to article publishing, introduce the practice of process-based publishing, and the potential of dynamic positionality statements as allowed by such alternative publishing formats. With this talk, we seek to link positionality practices with publishing practices.

Reflexivity is increasingly recognized as critical, with positionality statements becoming accepted as part of the publication. A white researcher from continental Europe writing about the Quechua people in South-America is positioned in a very specific way. If the researcher thinks about this positioning, it can help them weigh their perceptions more carefully and identify critical limitations. An increasing use of positionality statements helps to raise awareness of such reflexivity, and ultimately, collectively train the reflective work in our field.

Yet, over the course of time an individual's perception can change drastically. As researchers, our findings are relative to our position in time. One's stance, identity, and relationship to the research can be in a constant state of flux. This becomes especially salient for longer projects. With research projects spanning years and sometimes decades, we posit that articles include only static positionality statements that fail to capture that change. A white researcher from continental Europe may learn about colonial history over the course of their research project, which evolves how they perceive and assess the subject of their research. A dynamic approach to sharing this position can provide deeper context to help understand the origins of research findings.

However, we also recognize that static positionality statements is what article-based publishing has on offer. Static publishing is accompanied by static reflexivity. With alternative publishing formats being introduced that are more dynamic in nature, there is an opening for dynamic reflexivity.

One alternative publishing format is process-based publishing, in which each research step is published as its own output. Our own experiences with the publishing service ResearchEquals, have introduced the idea that with each step, the positionality statement can be updated in relation to the practice of doing research. A white, continental European researcher may formulate a theory while never having visited the Quechua people, but in their field work learn first-hand about the history of how the Quechua people have been used for research purposes. By the time they publish their raw observations, the researcher's position can be deeply moved (or not). This is as much part of the research finding as the methods applied, and we argue, informs the methods considered as viable.