Positionality in ethnographic fieldwork: a male, ‘native’ researcher among migrant men

Rustam Samadov

Central Asian Survey, 2025, vol. 44, issue 3, 465-473

Abstract: A researcher’s social identity not only affects the way data are gathered and interpreted, but it also impacts on how research participants perceive the researcher. During my ethnographic fieldwork on masculinities, conducted among Tajik men, I experienced difficulties in manoeuvring between my multiple positionalities on many occasions: both the ones I was aware of and also the additional ones that my research participants assigned to me. In this research note, I discuss different challenges that I, as a male researcher coming from the same context as my research participants, was confronted with during fieldwork. I show that while exploring men and masculinities, I had to constantly switch between different positionalities, including my own gender practices and views. This involved making some of my identity facets less conspicuous, while exposing others, as a result of engaging in gender power dynamics characterizing the field site.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2025.2514543

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