Navigating the city: gender and positionality in cultural geography research

Abstract

How is qualitative research in geography performed? What are some considerations relevant to qualitative research in the field? Answering these questions requires reflections on the role of positionality and gender in cultural geography research. This paper explores the various ways that insider/outsider status and gender impact urban fieldwork. In doing so, it demonstrates that the issues confronting researchers are universal regardless of field site or national, personal, or professional position. By outlining challenges and successes from fieldwork in very different contexts and settings—the work of a graduate student in London, England and that of a faculty member in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania—this paper shows how a qualitative research methodology is directly impacted by the positions of the researchers and explores universal challenges related to positionality. In particular, we focus on interviews as a method that is central to answering research questions and especially impacted by the personal situations of the researchers.

Keywords:

• qualitative methodology
• fieldwork
• interviews
• positionality
• gender
• urban geography

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jacqueline Curtis and Jennifer Mapes for beginning our writing group at Kent State University. This group, and all the women involved in it, was instrumental in supporting and encouraging the writing of this paper.