Empathy through imaginative reconstruction: Navigating difference in feminist transnational research in China and Peru

Abstract

Existing scholarship in feminist geography has worked to significantly delineate the concept of positionality. In this article, we continue in this tradition by considering the context of transnational research where researchers need to actively negotiate the effects of colonialist discourses in both interpersonal relationships and discourse production. We argue that empathy through imaginative reconstruction provides an opportunity for an emotional understanding to be approached in the absence of shared experience. Drawing on our own fieldwork experiences, we address moments where we worked to create relationships of empathy through imagination to highlight ways that imaginative reconstruction and empathy can be used to negotiate difference in the process of fieldwork. Relatedly, we address the need to take a third position and the role of the shame in this process. We also consider the dangers posed when using imaginative reconstruction, particularly over-identification and appropriation. We conclude by discussing the challenges and potential of using imaginative reconstruction to enrich transnational research.

Keywords:

• Empathy
• feminist methodology
• imagination
• interviewing
• qualitative research
• transnational research

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers of the paper whose suggestions helped us shape the arguments presented here. We particularly thank Dr. Kanchana Ruwanpura for her patience and dedication in helping us to bring this article to its final form. We would also like to extend a sincere thanks to our research participants for their kindness, generosity, and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Barbara Alluski Award, Women's and Gender Department, Ohio University. Becas Colciencias Fulbright.

Notes on contributors

Zhou Li

Zhou Li (Ph.D., Ohio University) is an associate professor in the School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Jiaotong University (Chengdu, China). Her research examines the multiple networks in identity construction to unravel the systematic oppression that Chinese women have been through with the goal of a liberatory politics. She has publications in Journal of Business Ethics, Critical Discourse Studies, and Chinese Journal of Communication, among others.

Nancy Regina Gómez Arrieta

Nancy Gómez holds a PhD in Communication Studies, Ohio University and is a full professor in the Communication Department at Universidad Del Norte, in Colombia. She has published in international journals such as: Journal of Applied Communication Research and Cuestiones de Género. Her main research lines include: The meanings of the female body in public and private spaces.

Risa Whitson

Risa Whitson holds a PhD in Geography, Pennsylvania State University and is associate professor in Department of Geography and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Ohio University. Risa’s research focuses primarily on the social geographies of gender and work. She is particularly interested in how non-standard labor relations, and in particular informal work, constitute an important element of changing economic structures and gender performances. She has published articles in Social and Cultural Geography, Antipode, and the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, among others.