A Feminist in the Forest: Situated Knowledges and Mixing Methods in Natural Resource Management
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Date
2003Author
Nightingale, Andrea J
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Abstract
Donna Haraway’s (1991) concept of partial or situated knowledges has been a
major influence on feminist methodological debates within geography. In this paper, I
argue that geographers can interrogate the partiality of knowledge by developing research
designs that incorporate methods derived from different epistemological traditions. The
silences and gaps between data sets can be explored to interrogate the partiality of
knowledge produced in different theoretical and methodological contexts. Also, advocates
of interpretive methodologies can add substantially to theoretical debates over
epistemology by demonstrating how the results from all methods are incomplete and
subject to power – and positionality – laden interpretations. Using different methods is
one way to highlight this issue and to challenge the hegemony of positivist science within
mainstream academic and policy circles.