Critical Theory in Research

Based on critical theory, this chapter focuses on the first generation of Frankfurt School (mainly to authors such as T.W. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, and W. Benjamin). For discussing methodology in research, these authors are considered more representative than the younger generation (e.g., Habermas and Honneth) mainly because of the renewed interest in the direct critique of society and because of the failure of the younger generation to produce empirical research. The proponents of critical theory establish connections between theory and practice, in the sense that the social content of research must have human dignity at its centre. The difference between method-led and content-led research is discussed and considered central for this kind of approach to empirical research. Feminist research methodologies and critical race methodology are considered as closely associated with critical theory. These different approaches have developed autonomously from critical theory and are not directly related to it. However, feminist research methodologies and critical race methodology are expounded here because of their similarities to the critical theory of the Frankfurt School aimed at providing an emancipatory approach to empirical research.

“If your institution refuses to provide what you need, create it yourself”: Feminist praxis on #AcademicTwitter

Previous research has demonstrated the impact that Twitter can have for promoting and discussing a feminist agenda. Given the gendered neoliberalism that exists within academia, tweets under the hashtag “#AcademicTwitter” may also be an important space for feminist praxis. Yet, to our knowledge, there is no empirical work analysing the function of “Academic Twitter” from a distinctly feminist perspective. Thus, we asked “How is Academic Twitter used for feminist praxis?”. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis of 596 tweets containing the hashtag #AcademicTwitter. This generated four themes showing how Academic Twitter can be a valuable site for feminist praxis, by enabling academics to “give testimony to academia”, “access the hidden curriculum”, and engage in both “academic kindness” and “resistance and advocacy”. Despite these benefits, we also observed a tension between Academic Twitter as a site for feminist practice yet also as potentially complicit in promoting the competitiveness and overwork that pervades academia. We recommend that future feminist research interrogates the ways in which more diverse forms of feminist praxis, including more negative experiences, are negotiated on Academic Twitter.

Dialing up Critical Feminist Research as Lockdown Dialed us Down: How a Pandemic Sparked Community Food Dialogs in Cape Town, South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic and its control measures had a devastating impact on household food security in South Africa. The pandemic brought existing food injustice patterns, such as spatial inequality, intersectionality, and the causes of food poverty to the forefront, especially for women. It also galvanized momentum in the people's agenda for solidarity and stimulated community members' calls for an overhaul of the existing commercialized food system toward hyper-localized, community-led solutions such as food dialogs and community kitchens. First and foremost, that meant talking about hunger and addressing its root causes. This paper reports on a co-research process on household food security during the pandemic in four neighborhoods of the Cape Flats. This study found that household food insecurity and the roles women play in food systems are significantly shaped by intersectionality: the consequences of being women, Black or Persons of Color, residents of geographies of social and economic marginalization within the city, and historically excluded from higher education. In this paper, we provide reflections on the co-research process from the perspectives of co-researchers, the project coordinator, and the project funder by applying a critical feminist framework and by answering the question: How can critical feminist research steer community-led action? Community members from the Cape Flats and five post-graduate students from a Berlin-based institute conceptualized this study and it was implemented by community researchers and projects partners in 2020. The paper highlights important aspects of the methodology, particularly the joint contextualization and sense making of findings by community researchers who placed food insecurity results in the context of their lived experiences. Based on their discussions, the co-researchers created visions for post-COVID-19 food environments, one of which is discussed in this paper: destigmatization of hunger. Hunger was described by co-researchers as a problem hidden by individuals and silenced by communities.

The Mother - Adolescent Son Relationship

<p>Adrienne Rich, feminist, writer, researcher and mother once stated, "if could have one wish for my own sons, it is that they should have the courage of women" (1976,p.214). Current statistics demonstrate that adolescent boys are more likely to be unemployed, to die from suicide or bad health, to have term psychological problems, to contribute in disproportionately large numbers to crime statistics. One of the explanations for this situation that is gaining currency in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, is that the current generation of boys is fatherless. The 1996 census counted 168,255 one-parent families, accounting for 17.7 percent of all family structures. Of these 83.1 percent, or a total of 139,819 one-parent families, were headed by women. Mothers from intact heterosexual relationships report experiences of ostensibly raising their children on their own. And yet there is silence about the mother, her realities and the integral part she has to play in addressing the highlighted concerns. It appears she is encouraged to withdraw any influence she may have on the adolescent son and actively promote involvement by the father. The research project investigates the mother and adolescent son relationship, the interventions to this relationship and the impact of these interventions on the mother and son. Using feminist participatory action research theory, as distinct from action research, its concerned with the following methodological questions; deconstructing the 'participant-empowerment' agenda; examining the insider/outsider relationship, when the subject-object relationship between researcher and researched that occurs in conventional research is converted into a subject-subject relationship; and negotiating a community and social-change based feminist research that is also located within the academy. The research methods used in the project include a longitudinal focus group, focus group sessions and interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed, semi-structured individual one-off interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed, journaling, drawing interpretation and a review of literature. The findings of this study demonstrate that the mother-adolescent son relationship is disrupted by marginalising and disenfranchising and that these interventions disempower the mother. The research has shown that a major agent in the incapacitation of the mother-headed family is the lack of adequate resources available. The insufficiency of State support for the family intensifies these difficulties. The research has shown that the strength, confidence and enhanced self-esteem of the mother contributes positively to her ability to parent her adolescent son. The participants have also been able to demonstrate that the diversity of family and community structures can provide necessary and positive role models for male children. By combining participatory action research with feminist research principles, the project also provides a transferable example of the ability of these two approaches to inform and enrich each other.</p>

The Mother - Adolescent Son Relationship

<p>Adrienne Rich, feminist, writer, researcher and mother once stated, "if could have one wish for my own sons, it is that they should have the courage of women" (1976,p.214). Current statistics demonstrate that adolescent boys are more likely to be unemployed, to die from suicide or bad health, to have term psychological problems, to contribute in disproportionately large numbers to crime statistics. One of the explanations for this situation that is gaining currency in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, is that the current generation of boys is fatherless. The 1996 census counted 168,255 one-parent families, accounting for 17.7 percent of all family structures. Of these 83.1 percent, or a total of 139,819 one-parent families, were headed by women. Mothers from intact heterosexual relationships report experiences of ostensibly raising their children on their own. And yet there is silence about the mother, her realities and the integral part she has to play in addressing the highlighted concerns. It appears she is encouraged to withdraw any influence she may have on the adolescent son and actively promote involvement by the father. The research project investigates the mother and adolescent son relationship, the interventions to this relationship and the impact of these interventions on the mother and son. Using feminist participatory action research theory, as distinct from action research, its concerned with the following methodological questions; deconstructing the 'participant-empowerment' agenda; examining the insider/outsider relationship, when the subject-object relationship between researcher and researched that occurs in conventional research is converted into a subject-subject relationship; and negotiating a community and social-change based feminist research that is also located within the academy. The research methods used in the project include a longitudinal focus group, focus group sessions and interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed, semi-structured individual one-off interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed, journaling, drawing interpretation and a review of literature. The findings of this study demonstrate that the mother-adolescent son relationship is disrupted by marginalising and disenfranchising and that these interventions disempower the mother. The research has shown that a major agent in the incapacitation of the mother-headed family is the lack of adequate resources available. The insufficiency of State support for the family intensifies these difficulties. The research has shown that the strength, confidence and enhanced self-esteem of the mother contributes positively to her ability to parent her adolescent son. The participants have also been able to demonstrate that the diversity of family and community structures can provide necessary and positive role models for male children. By combining participatory action research with feminist research principles, the project also provides a transferable example of the ability of these two approaches to inform and enrich each other.</p>

Decolonising knowledge production in disaster management: a feminist perspective

PurposeThis paper focuses on how feminist research seeks to integrate the inclusion of women in society for them to be active participants in disaster management, and goes on to prove how crucial it is for disaster research to collaborate with feminist research to arrive at a cohesive, interwoven, interdisciplinary field and methodology, while at the same time giving the agency in the hands of local agents for them to bring about change through traditional methods interwoven with broader methodologies. To hand over the process to local agents would result in decolonisation of knowledge production and implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper was written using secondary sources, mainly in the form of books, journal articles and news articles. Reports by international organisations were used to augment data and other theoretical frameworks and references in the paper. The secondary sources were selected keeping in view one of the primary objectives of the paper, namely “decolonising knowledge production”. Analysis by postcolonial authors from the global South has been included. Research and literature based in local contexts form an important part of the sources consulted throughout this paper. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been used as a case study to highlight how disasters are still “gendered”; it opens up space for further research on the topic.FindingsEven though women are increasingly recognised as agents of positive change in prevention, mitigation and post-disaster efforts, very little is done at the policy and implementation levels to include their experiences and benefit from them. There is an urgent need for systemic, gender-aware changes at socio-economic and political levels so that hazards may be prevented from turning into disasters by reducing the vulnerability of populations.Originality/valueThe importance of this research lies in its interdisciplinary approach and the integration of three fields of study disaster management, feminist/gender studies and decolonising knowledge production. The attempt is to analyse the interdependence of these fields of study to understand the lacunae in planning and implementation of disaster management policies, and to pave the way for further research by way of this integration.