Add the woman and stir: abstract masculinity in case study research

Policek, Nicoletta ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5788-4869 (2019) Add the woman and stir: abstract masculinity in case study research. In: 2nd International Conference on Gender Research 2019, 11-12 April 2019, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy.

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Abstract

Case study research has a practical versatility in its agnostic approach (Rosenberg and Yates, 2007). Philosophically, it can be orientated from a realist or positivist perspective where the researcher holds the view that there is one single reality, which is independent of the individual and can be apprehended, studied and measured, through to a relativist or interpretivist perspective. Such philosophical versatility provides the researcher with the opportunity to decide the methodological orientation used in the conduct of the case study. Yet within such versatility, the assumption of objectivity, defined as the separation between knower and known, speaks of an "abstract masculinity". Case study research, this contribution contends, even when about women, obviates the experience of women, an experience that is always situated, relational, and engaged. In other words, ontologically, it is argued here, the lived reality of women's lives is absent from the domain of case study research because the language adopted when framing case study research is still very much a language that talks about women, but it does not allow women to speak. This contribution emphasises the multiplicity of female expressions and preoccupations so that from the intersection of these differences is possible to discover a standpoint for women that does not collapse the differences among women into the "Universal Woman" (Kristeva, 1981). Of course, any such program of action will not get very far unless the differences among women are fully explored. And, as Tong (1992) put it, because feminist thought is kaleidoscopic, a closer inspection will always reveal new visions, new structures, new relationships for personal and political life, all of which will be different tomorrow than today. These are the strengths and the value of challenging the ‘add the woman and stir’ approach in case study research. Feminist’s contribution to case study research goes further than highlighting the woman’s perspective as it helps to promote case study research as a distinctive form of empirical enquiry by challenging the common claim that case study research provides little basis for scientific research (Simons, 2009).

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Journal / Publication Title:	Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Gender Research (ICGR 2019)
Publisher:	Acpil
ISSN:	2516-2802
ISBN:	9781912764150
Departments:	Academic Departments > Business, Law, Policing & Social Sciences (BLPSS) > Policing, Criminology & Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2019 15:51
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 08:34
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5017

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