Companion to Feminist Studies. Группа авторов
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framework that attends to both local expressions of feminism and resistance, as discussed in the previous chapter, and incorporates understandings developed in postcolonial feminist theory. It includes critique of neoliberal globalization, colonialism and imperialism as well as Western‐centric expressions of feminism. Marshall notes that transnational feminism allows for the possibility of “dialog and coalition building,” and solidarity among women in their contextual particularities that are based on the intersection of social locations, such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, and nationality.
In Part III, we focus on the diversity of methodologies developed by feminist scholars in response to the limits of approaches that rely on traditional positivist or androcentric scientific methods (see Chapter 12 by Cynthia Deitch). Despite these critiques, feminist empiricist scholars continue to draw on positivist methods in the fields of demography, geography, economics and sociology to document the ways in which gender and other systems of difference and inequality are expressed in aggregate data. In Chapter 13, Gina Marie Longo details the premises and research strategies adopted by feminist empiricists who apply positivist approaches but also acknowledge the role of values in scientific research practices in order to minimize their negative effects. However, she also notes that feminist empiricism has been criticized for “lacking a radical approach to deconstructing the power hierarchies and systems of oppressions that exist within and are upheld by science.” Longo then presents two different feminist modes of knowledge generation: standpoint epistemology and postmodern feminism. Feminist standpoint analysis begins in the lived experience of socially located actors. They are especially attentive to the perspectives of marginalized knowers who experientially understand the “relations of power” (Chapter 13) or “relations of ruling” (Smith 1989) that contour social life. In contrast, feminist empiricists focus on the diverse interests and values that are constructed as rational products of deliberative discourse, rather than an expression or reflection of lived experiences.
In addition to debates about what counts as knowledge and how to conduct research, contemporary interdisciplinary scholars (Chapter 14) discuss the significance of the lack of women and women‐identified people working as scientists in academia and other research positions. They also consider more recent critical approaches which incorporate methodological strategies informed by postcolonial, critical race disability, and queer theories. Drawing on two contemporary case studies, Samantha M. Archer and A.E. Kohler demonstrate the power of feminist science studies to challenge some of the taken‐for‐granted findings of archeological and genetic research on gender to address “controversial bioethical dilemmas regarding intellectual disability and clinical practice.” In Chapter 15, Valeria Esquivel discusses how feminist economists contest “the gender‐blindness of economic thinking and have developed new analytical frameworks and methodologies to examine gender relations in economic institutions and economic functioning.”
In their overview of feminist approaches to ethnography in anthropology, Dána‐Ain Davis and Christa Craven (Chapter 16) emphasize the diversity of feminist ethnographic innovations. Despite these differences, Davis and Craven find that there are overlapping “commitment[s] to paying attention to marginality and power differentials, attending to a feminist intellectual history, seeking justice, and producing scholarship in various creative forms that can contribute to movement building and/or be in the service of the people, communities, organizations, and issues we study.”
Ariella Rotramel examines “Feminist Historiography” in Chapter 17. Rotramel explains that this methodological approach can best be understood as a form of feminist praxis, namely, one that is shaped by the dialectical relationship between theory and practice. For example, knowledge generated by social activism is then used to inform the development or reformulation of social theory, which, in turn, informs future activist strategies and engagement. Feminist historians who adopt this approach have been at the forefront of revealing the relations of power embedded in the archives that are used to generate knowledge about the past. Rotramel also notes that feminist historians have expanded their approach by drawing on literary studies and digital humanities to alter how scholars approach analysis of historical texts.
Feminist scholars debate both the subjects for analysis and the methods utilized within the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. Culture and media are topics that are approached in a variety of ways in different disciplines. In Chapter 18, the final chapter in Part III, Diane Grossman explains how feminist scholars effectively shifted cultural analysis to center gender and alter how scholars approach cultural texts and study cultural artifacts in the area of popular culture. Grossman demonstrates how disciplinary as well as epistemological framing influence research questions as well as methodological approaches.
The last part of the volume is constructed around the theme of “Feminist Praxis.” Many of the authors in this volume writing about both feminist epistemologies and methodologies acknowledge how activism and the goals of social justice have contributed to the innovations and reformulations of feminist approaches since the 1970s. This last part focuses on topics that explicitly engage with social change and social justice. In this regard, it is fitting to start with the chapter on “Feminist Pedagogies,” as it is a form of feminist praxis designed to train students in critical reading, writing, and community‐building skills to enhance their ability to contribute to social change efforts in their everyday lives. While those who teach courses in Feminist Studies may or may not view their teaching through the lens of feminist pedagogy, many do see their role in the classroom as an extension of their commitment to educating for social justice. In Chapter 19, “Feminist Pedagogy,” Danielle M. Currier reviews the history of this form of feminist praxis and focuses on the importance of intersectionality, reflexivity, experiential learning, and critical skill building.
In Chapter 20, Manisha Desai and Koyel Khan examine feminist praxis in the context of globalization. In particular, they interrogate decolonial postcolonial feminism as it developed through a recognition of the ways in which colonialism, modernity, and capitalism contoured constructions of gender. It “is informed by social imaginaries of gender justice beyond the modern” liberal or socialist framing. Desai and Khan conclude that “decolonial feminist praxis in a globalizing world needs to rethink women's empowerment and gender justice beyond the modernist emancipatory logic and locate it within anti‐racist, anti‐capitalist, and anti‐settler colonial struggles that seek alternative relations among humans, with other species, and with nature.”
In Chapter 21, Gill Wright Miller focuses on “somatic praxis” and argues for the importance of “the material body” for feminist praxis. Experiences of “menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause … lay the groundwork for a body‐centered approach to corporeality.” Miller provides a methodological framework for assessing pedagogies of the body. Miller explains that in order to integrate feminism and somatic praxis requires asking “ourselves questions about our own preferences and expectations, to notice and take responsibility for the delivery of our expression, and to aim to shape multidimensionally with the other participants.”
Meredeth Turshen and Marci Berger explore the praxis of “Feminist Health Movements” in Chapter 22. They start with defining key terms in understanding feminist social activism and political claims, and how feminists challenge practices of forced sterilization and eugenics. Both authors illustrate the contemporary challenges posed by different aspects of “hashtag activism.” For example, #BringBackOurGirls was developed to publicize the kidnapping of schoolgirls