The price of positionality: assessing the benefits and burdens of self‐identification in research methods
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Author | MARK FATHI MASSOUD |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12372 |
DOI: ./jo ls.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The price of positionality: assessing the benefits
and burdens of self-identification in research
methods
MARK FATHI MASSOUD1,2
Department of Politics, University of
California, Santa Cruz, CA , USA
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,
University of Oxford, Manor Road,
Oxford, OX UQ, England
Correspondence
Mark Fathi Massoud, Department of
Politics, University of California, Santa
Cruz, CA , USA
Email: mmassoud@ucsc.edu
Abstract
What is the impact on and influence of the researcher
in socio-legal studies? Drawing in part on my empir-
ical research and professional experience, this article
investigates the benefits and burdens of positionality.
Positionality is the disclosure of how an author’s racial,
gender, class, or other self-identifications, experiences,
and privileges influence research methods. A statement
of positionality in a research article can enhance the
validity of its empirical data as well as its theoretical
contribution. However, such self-disclosure puts schol-
ars in a vulnerable position, and those most likely to
reveal how their positionality shapes their research are
women, ethnic minorities, or both. At this stage of the
field’s methodological development, the burdensof posi-
tionality are being carried unevenly by a tiny minority
of researchers. I conclude by inviting socio-legal schol-
ars to redress this imbalance by embracing expressions
of positionality.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited.
© The Authors. Journalof Law and Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University (CU).
S wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jols J.Law Soc. ;(Suppl. ):S–S.
S
I [had] felt myself to be colourless, but that [experience of being passed over for an
award at my American high school graduation because I was an Arab] forced me
to see myself as marginal, non-American, alienated, marked .. . I was to remain the
outsider, no matter what I did.
INTRODUCTION
I felt anxiety deep in my stomach as I entered the law professor’s office for my tenure-track job
interview.It was . I had recently completed my doctorate, and this meeting with a full profes-
sor who was also a leading scholar in my field would be pivotal. A ‘no’ vote from him would end
my candidacy.I sat across from him, an older white man, ready to discuss my research on human
rights. He peppered me with questions about my background, the circumstances surrounding my
immigration from Sudan to the United States (US), my childhood experiences, the languages that
I spoke growing up, the places that my parents or I had lived, and other personal matters. By
the time the interview ended, I had been invited to speak neither about my qualifications – my
reasons for applying, my teaching experience, my job talk, my book manuscript – nor about my
research and leadership plans were I to be hired. As a lawyer, I knew his direct questions about
ethnicity, language, and national origin were prohibited by US employment law and fair hiring
practices,but because I was new to the field, needed a job, and wanted to make a good impres-
sion, I answered all of them. Alone later that night, I cried – not only because I had not wanted
to talk about personal matters with this man, but also because I had felt powerless to assert my
rights. Though austerity measures led the law faculty to stop this search without hiring anyone,
my experience at the interview taught me how scholars exert authority over one another. Ask-
ing questions may be a benign way to get to know people in ethnically diverse societies, but it can
also spotlight the class and racial privileges that sustain intellectual, socio-economic, and cultural
hierarchies.
In recent years, some social scientists have given greater attention to how their self-
identifications, experiences of marginalization, or professional privileges influence their research
questions, data collection, and analysis.The prevalent term for this – and the one that I use in
this article – is ‘positionality’, though several other terms, including ‘reflexivity’ and ‘standpoint’,
are also used to refer to similar concepts. While these terms have different genealogies, I see them
as interchangeable ways of naming the phenomenon of opening up one’s self-identifications –
rather than only one’s scholarly ideas – to criticism. As this article shows, calls to reflect on one’s
positionality and its effects on one’s research methods in the field of law and society have been
heeded most often by gendered, racialized, immigrant, queer,working-class, and other marginal-
ized scholars – often those who also study marginalized people or places. However,there has been
E. W.Said, OutofPlace:AMemoir() .
Title VII of the United States Civil Rights Act of (29 CFR Part 1601) prohibits employers from discriminating on the
basis of race, colour,religion, sex, and national origin.
See for example J. M. Medzani, ‘Positionality Statement on Studying Male Victims of Intimate Partner Abuse in Zim-
babwe: A Research Note’ () International J. of Social Research Methodology ; N. Miled, ‘Muslim Researcher
Researching Muslim Youth:Reflexive Notes on Critical Ethnography, Positionality,and Representation’ () Ethnog-
raphy and Education ; R. G. Galam, ‘Gender, Reflexivity, and Positionality in Male Research in One’s Own Community
with Filipino Seafarers’ Wives’ () Forum: Qualitative Social Research .
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