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“Ok, gender! Where are you?!”: On the potential of catalytic validity in feminist geographies of everyday inequities

Coen, Stephanie E.

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Abstract

This paper is a provocation and reflection on some of the methodological tensions and opportunities I encountered in trying to “get at” gender in my research on the everday gendered geographies of physical activity. Situated in a feminist methodology, I designed my study on gender and gym environments to include multiple forms of data (interviews, drawings, journals) to foster a participant-centred research process by offering diverse forms of expression. Yet, there were moments where my feminist commitment to recognise participants’ agency in how they articulated their gendered experiences was stymied by seeming self-contradictions throughout their multi-modal narratives, as well as by my researcher interpretations of gender. In this post-mortem, I consider what incongruities in the ways some participants spoke about gender within and across data types tell us about gender as a concept. I illustrate how there is methodological opportunity in using multiple creative methods as a check for rigour in the form of “catalytic validity,” or awareness-raising among research participants, which is consistent with socially transformative feminist geographical aims.

Citation

Coen, S. E. (2021). “Ok, gender! Where are you?!”: On the potential of catalytic validity in feminist geographies of everyday inequities. Area, 53(4), 699-707. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12744

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 30, 2021
Online Publication Date Jul 16, 2021
Publication Date 2021-12
Deposit Date Jul 19, 2021
Publicly Available Date Jul 17, 2023
Journal Area
Print ISSN 0004-0894
Electronic ISSN 1475-4762
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 53
Issue 4
Pages 699-707
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12744
Keywords Geography, Planning and Development
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5805405
Publisher URL https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.12744

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