Liberating Method

by Devault, Marjorie L.

• ISBN13: 9781566396981
• ISBN10: 1566396980
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-22
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

Liberating Method reflects the conviction that feminist insights can and should contribute to a sounder, more rigorous social science. In this book, one of the leading practitioners and teachers of feminist methodology examines profound questions about traditional and customary practices of social research. Marjorie DeVault argues that established methods too often ignore social oppression as she charts her quest for approaches that will more adequately represent marginalized groups.

Author Biography

Marjorie L. DeVault is author of the important feminist book Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. She is Associate Professor of Sociology and a member of the Women's Studies Program at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
PART I: INTRODUCTION	1	(20)
Becoming a Feminist Scholar: A Second-Generation Story	5	(16)
PART II: WHAT IS FEMINIST METHODOLOGY?	21	(34)
Talking Back to Sociology: Distinctive Contributions of Feminist Methodology	25	(21)
Institutional Ethnography: A Strategy for Feminist Inquiry	46	(9)
PART III: EXCAVATION	55	(50)
Talking and Listening from Women's Standpoint: Feminist Strategies for Interviewing and Analysis	59	(25)
Ethnicity and Expertise: Racial-Ethnic Knowledge in Sociological Research	84	(21)
PART IV: THE SELF AS RESOURCE	105	(52)
Novel Readings: The Social Organization of Interpretation	109	(30)
Whose Science of Food and Health? Narratives of Profession and Activism from Public Health Nutrition	139	(18)
PART V: WRITING AND RHETORICAL STRATEGY	157	(36)
Women Write Sociology: Rhetorical Strategies	161	(14)
Metaphors of Silence and Voice in Feminist Thought (with Chrys Ingraham)	175	(12)
Speaking Up, Carefully: Authorship and Authority in Feminist Writing	187	(6)
PART VI: CRAFT KNOWLEDGE OF FEMINIST RESEARCH	193	(40)
From the Seminar Room: Practical Advice for Researchers	195	(38)
Appendix A List of Data for Sources in Chapter 6: Commentary on The Late Bourgeois World	233	(1)
Appendix B Readings for a Seminar on ``Feminist Methodologies''	234	(5)
Notes	239	(8)
References	247	(22)
Index	269