This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (15) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Davies, B. Articles by Petersen, E. B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Ambivalent Practices of Reflexivity

University of Western Sydney

Jenny Browne

University of Newcastle

Susanne Gannon

University of Western Sydney

Eileen Honan

Deakin University

Cath Laws

Fowler Road School

Babette Mueller-Rockstroh

University of Maastricht

Eva Bendix Petersen

University of Copenhagen

Reflexivity involves turning one’s reflexive gaze on discourse—turning language back on itself to see the work it does in constituting the world. The subject/researcher sees simultaneously the object of her or his gaze and the means by which the object (which may include oneself as subject) is being constituted. The consciousness of self that reflexive writing sometimes entails may be seen to slip inadvertently into constituting the very (real) self that seems to contradict a focus on the constitutive power of discourse. This article explores this site of slippage and of ambivalence. In a collective biography on the topic of reflexivity, the authors tell and write stories about reflexivity and in a doubled reflexive arc, examine themselves at work during the workshop. Examining their own memories and reflexive practices, they explore this place of slippage and provide theoretical and practical insight into "what is going on" in reflexive research and writing.

Key Words: reflexivity • ambivalence • discourse • collective biography • poststructuralism

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. M. Carter, C. F. C. Jordens, C. McGrath, and M. Little You Have to Make Something of All That Rubbish, Do You? An Empirical Investigation of the Social Process of Qualitative Research Qual Health Res, September 1, 2008; 18(9): 1264 - 1276. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. M. English and C. J. Irving Reflexive Texts: Issues of Knowledge, Power, and Discourse in Researching Gender and Learning Adult Education Quarterly, August 1, 2008; 58(4): 267 - 283. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Sermijn, P. Devlieger, and G. Loots The Narrative Construction of the Self: Selfhood as a Rhizomatic Story Qualitative Inquiry, June 1, 2008; 14(4): 632 - 650. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. Davies and C. Davies Having, and Being Had By, "Experience": Or, "Experience" in the Social Sciences After the Discursive/ Poststructuralist Turn Qualitative Inquiry, November 1, 2007; 13(8): 1139 - 1159. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. Walby On the Social Relations of Research: A Critical Assessment of Institutional Ethnography Qualitative Inquiry, October 1, 2007; 13(7): 1008 - 1030. [Abstract] [PDF]

				I. Stronach, D. Garratt, C. Pearce, and H. Piper Reflexivity, the Picturing of Selves, the Forging of Method Qualitative Inquiry, March 1, 2007; 13(2): 179 - 203. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Manderson, E. Bennett, and S. Andajani-Sutjahjo The social dynamics of the interview: age, class, and gender. Qual Health Res, December 1, 2006; 16(10): 1317 - 1334. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. Stephens and S. Delamont Balancing the Berimbau: Embodied Ethnographic Understanding Qualitative Inquiry, April 1, 2006; 12(2): 316 - 339. [Abstract] [PDF]