Abstract
In this chapter I consider the implications of Butler’s thinking for the role of race in research. I explore what Butler’s thinking on subjectivation, intelligibility, the limits of knowledge and an anti-foundationalist view of race might mean for ethical issues in research such as representation, knowledge creation and voice. I argue that Butler’s thinking disrupts many of the most common assumptions made by researchers and conclude that her work has significant implications for the purpose of research. Since research constitutes both researcher and researched, two main purposes for research within a Butlerian framework would be firstly an interrogation of categories, discourses and norms, and secondly a broadening of the category of human so that it includes all humans as fully intelligible subjects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Ahmed, Sara. 2007. Declarations of whiteness. The non-performativity of anti-racism. In Taking up the challenge. Critical race and whiteness studies in a postcolonising nation, ed. Damien W. Riggs. Adelaide: Crawford House Publishing.
Alexander, Claire. 2004. Writing race. Ethnography and the imagination of ‘The Asian Gang’. In Researching race and racism, ed. Martin Bulmer and John Solomos, 134–149. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Bishop, Russell. 2005. Freeing ourselves from neocolonial domination in research: A Kaupapa Maori approach to creating knowledge. In The Sage handbook of qualitative research, ed. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, 3rd ed., 109–138. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Butler, Judith. 1993. Endangered/endangering: Schematic racism and white paranoia. In Reading Rodney King/reading urban uprising, ed. Robert Gooding-Williams, 15–22. New York/London: Routledge.
———. 1994. Against proper objects. Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 6 (2 and 3). http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Butler-AgainstProperObjects-1994.pdf
———. 1999. Revisiting bodies and pleasures. In Performativity and belonging, ed. Vikki Bell, 11–20. London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: Sage.
———. 2005. Giving an account of oneself. New York: Fordham University Press.
———. 2008. Gender trouble. 2nd ed. New York/Abingdon: Routledge.
———. 2011. Bodies that matter. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Butler, J., and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 2007. Who sings the nation state? Calcutta: Seagull Books.
Butler, Judith, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Zizek. 2000. Contingency, hegemony, universality: Contemporary dialogues on the left. London: Verso.
Byrne, Bridget. 2011. Post-race? Nation, inheritance and the contradictory performativity of race in Barack Obama’s ‘A more perfect union’ speech. Third Space 10 (1). http://journals.sfu.ca/thirdspace/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/byrne
Carby, Hazel V. 1994. Schooling in Babylon. In The empire strikes back. Race and racism in 70s Britain, 183–211. Oxon/New York: Routledge, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. (First edition 1982).
Chambers, Samuel A., and Terrell Carver. 2008. Judith Butler and political theory. Troubling politics. London/New York: Routledge.
Davies, Bronwyn. 2006. Subjectification: The relevance of Butler’s analysis for education. British Journal of Sociology of Education 27 (4): 425–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690600802907.
Gunaratnam, Yasmin. 2003. Researching race and ethnicity: Methods, knowledge and power. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Home Office. 2001. Community cohesion: A report of the independent review team chaired by Ted Cantle. http://tedcantle.co.uk/pdf/communitycohesion%20cantlereport.pdf
Kitching, Karl. 2011. Taking responsibility for race inequality and the limitless acts required: Beyond ‘good/bad whites’ to the immeasurably whitened self. Power and Education 3 (2): 164–178. https://doi.org/10.2304/power.2011.3.2.164.
McLaren, Peter. 2003. Life in schools. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Nayak, Anoop. 2006. After race: Ethnography, race and post-race theory. Ethnic and Racial Studies 29 (3): 411–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870600597818.
Patton, Lori D., and Stephanie Bondi. 2015. Nice white men or social justice allies?: Using critical race theory to examine how white male faculty and administrators engage in ally work. Race Ethnicity and Education 18 (4): 488–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.1000289.
Pillow, Wanda. 2003. Confession, catharsis or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 16 (2): 175–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000060635.
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. Penguin Books.
Sanada, Satoshi. 2012. Writing ‘race’ into absence? Post-race theory, global consciousness and reflexivity. In Discourse, power, and resistance down under, ed. Mark Vicars, Tarquam McKenna, and Julie White, 95–106. Dordrecht: Sense Publishers.
Siraj-Blatchford, Iram, and John Siraj-Blatchford. 1997. Reflexivity, social justice and educational research. Cambridge Journal of Education 27 (2): 235–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764970270207.
Solorzano, Daniel G., and Tara J. Yosso. 2002. Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for educational research. Qualitative Inquiry 8 (1): 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040200800103.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. Can the subaltern speak? In Colonial discourse and postcolonial theory. A reader, ed. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, 66–111. New York: Colombia University Press.
———. 1990. In The postcolonial Critic. Interviews, strategies, dialogues, ed. Sarah Harasym. New York/London: Routledge.
Thiem, Annika. 2008. Unbecoming subjects. Judith Butler, moral philosophy and critical responsibility. New York: Fordham University Press.
White, Julie, and Sarah Drew. 2011. Collecting data or creating meaning? Qualitative Research Journal 11 (1): 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ1101003.
Youdell, Deborah. 2006. Impossible bodies, impossible selves: Exclusions and students subjectivities. Dordrecht: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chadderton, C. (2018). The Role of Race in Research Through a Butlerian Lens: Representation, Knowledge and Voice. In: Judith Butler, Race and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73365-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73365-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73364-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73365-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)