Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research

How can researchers produce work with relevance to theoretical and formal traditions and requirements of public academic knowledge while still remaining faithful to the experiences and accounts of research participants based in private settings? Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research explores this key dilemma and examines the interplay between theory, epistemology and the detailed practice of research. It does this across the whole research process: access, data collection and analysis and writing up research. It goes on to consider ways of achieving high standards of reflexivity and openness in the strategic choices made during research, examining these issues for specific projects in an open and accessible style.

PART ONE: INTRODUCING OUR VOICESPublic Knowledge, Private Lives, Personal Experience - Rosalind Edwards and Jane RibbensHearing My Own Voice? An Autobiographical Discussion of Motherhood - Jane RibbensPART ONE: SPEAKING AND LISTENING: REFLECTING MULTILAYERED VOICESBringing Silent Voices into a Public Discourse - Melanie MauthnerShifting Layers of Professional, Lay and Personal Narratives - Tina MillerPublic and Private Meanings in Diaries - Linda BellTheoretical Voices and Women's Own Voices - Janet ParrPART TWO: HEARING AND REPRESENTATNG: REFLECTING THE PRIVATE IN PUBLICHearing Competing Voices - Miri Song Sibling ResearchReflections on a Voice-Centred Relational Method - Natasha Mauthner and Andrea DoucetRepresenting Voices in Ethnography and Discourse Analysis - Pam AlldredRe/constructing Research Narratives - Maxine BirchWriting the Voices of the Less Powerful - Kay Standing Research on Lone MothersEpilogue - Jane Ribbens and Rosalind Edward