Reading Foucault: Genealogy and Social Science Research Methodology and Ethics
Author(s)
Bastalich, WendyKeywords
Social SciencesMethodology
Research Ethics
Research Epistemology
Foucault
Qualitative Methodology
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http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/2/3.htmlAbstract
Foucault's work has given rise to an increased methodological sensitivity of the political dangers associated with traditional qualitative approaches in the social sciences. There is a growing awareness that the widespread use of the research interview is not indicative of a deepening insight into the workings of culture, but is part of a broader social technology for its reproduction. In an effort to re-imagine interview methodology, scholars have read Foucault to suggest the need for greater attention to the active co-construction of research conclusions arising from interview based research. Specifically there are concerns that the authenticity of interviewee experience may be overwritten by the predispositions of the researcher. This paper questions this interpretation of Foucault's work and argues that Foucault rejects the view that knowledge emerges from the active social constructions of agents, but sees knowledge as an outcome, often accidental, of interrelated historical practices and discourses that produce the subjects and objects of social science discourse. The implications of Foucault's work for thinking about research ethics is not a return to authenticity, but a rejection of representational claims. The paper comprises a review of social science responses to post structural insights, coverage of the critical epistemological differences between Foucault's method and other key social theory paradigms, and a discussion of the critical ethical issues these differences raise for the social sciences.Date
2009-03-30Type
TextIdentifier
oai:epress.ac.uk:SRO-2009-27-2http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/2/3.html