Telling Personal Stories in Academic Research Publications: Reflexivity, Intersubjectivity and Contextual Positionalities

Abstract

In this chapter I reflect upon my research into gay male and bisexual non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships in the United Kingdom in the period between 1997 and 2003. More specifically, I revisit a self-reflexive methodology chapter ‘Researching Non-Monogamies’ of my PhD thesis, a developed version of which appeared as Chapter 2 in my book The Spectre of Promiscuity (Klesse, 2007a: 39–56). Here I wish to reflect upon what I now consider to be both its innovations and shortcomings. This critical rereading serves as a vantage point for exploring wider issues regarding telling personal stories as part of a reflexive methodological project. The original chapter was inspired by a move towards critical introspection as part of a self-reflexive writing praxis. Its major preoccupation was with power relations. It explored the impact of differences in location and identification on intersubjective dynamics in research encounters and their role in structuring representation. I discussed the problem of positionality with regard to the interconnected categories of gender, sexuality, ethnicity/race and nationality. I also addressed the question of eroticism in the research process. Yet there are also silences, in particular with regard to age, transgender and class. These omissions mirror a wider lack of engagement with certain differences in sexuality research throughout the 1990s and the early years of the millennium (Erel, Haritaworn, Gutiérrez Rodríguez and Klesse, 2008).

I am grateful to Chiara Addis, Jon Binnie and Umut Erel, who kindly gave me valuable advice by commenting on previous drafts of this chapter.