Abstract
Dominant communication research that valorizes objectivity in order to prescribe top-down measures of social change removes the researcher from the process and erases voices of the communities. In contrast, I argue that positioning the self in relation to those “studied” enables the communication scholar to foster participatory coconstructive spaces for change. Through a case study, I explore gendered context of the participants and my narratives to illustrate the significance of self-reflexivity for social change. Through narratives of lived experiences of female commercial sex workers and my self-reflexivity, I am able to juxtapose our stories and locate both the “researched” and the “researcher” as active participants in the research process. In doing so, we connect our gendered selves to the broader context within which these stories transpire moving toward a change that is embedded in a coconstructive process. In fact, I argue that self-reflexivity moves us toward social change projects aimed to achieve social justice, that is, projects that reflect a culturally meaningful knowledge that is coconstructed by both the researcher and the researched.
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Notes
- 1.
Red tika (on the forehead), glass bangles, and a string of glass beads around the neck are cultural markers of being married. A sari is a five- to nine-yard length of fabric that drapes around the body, often worn daily by married women. Although kurta, a long, loose-fitting, knee-length top with a matching pant bottom, is also regularly worn by unmarried as well as by more and more married women. A kurti is a short top without the matching bottom.
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Basnyat, I. (2019). Self-Reflexivity for Social Change: The Researcher, I, and the Researched, Female Street-Based Commercial Sex Workers,’ Gendered Contexts. In: Dutta, M.J., Zapata, D.B. (eds) Communicating for Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2005-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2005-7_2
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