Methodologies, Epistemologies, Ontologies, Ethics
For the past twenty years, I have been working to translate my reading of feminist epistemologies into qualitative (and more recently postqualitative) research practice. Beginning with five years of working as a participatory research facilitator in South America (mainly for the United Nations Development Program in Bolivia and UNICEF in Mexico), followed by a doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University that focused partly on connections between feminist theories/epistemologies/philosophies and qualitative research, my writing has attended to questions and topics such as:
- feminist interviewing;
- how to theorize and do qualitative data analysis;
- how to theorize and do reflexivity;
- how to do situated knowledges;
- how to elicit stories about taken for granted parts of domestic life;
- how to research domestic and parental responsibilities, and decision-making about paid and unpaid work;
- how to navigate and theorize the spaces between the stories people tell us/the stories we hear, and the scholarly narratives we tell;
- distinctions between testimonies, stories, and narratives;
- reflexivity and diffraction;
- reading authors’ work diffractively (and respectfully);
- non representational narrative analysis and ontological narrativity;
- working with visuals;
- genealogies of concepts and their connection to methods;
- translating scholarly work into visual re-presentations;
- how to theorize and engage in ethical research practice;
- what can we learn from Indigenous methodologies/epistemologies?;
- (working with Indigenous scholars), how can we do ethical research practice that is from and for communities, and how can we translate this into broader research practices in non-indigenous contexts?
- what does it mean to do research that is informed by ethico-onto-epistemologies?;
- and finally (but perhaps most importantly): how to translate Lorraine Code’s 40 years of developing her ecological thinking (ethico-onto-spiemological) approach into methodological research practices that are ethical, situated and diffractive, and transformative.
- Some examples of my published work on methodologies, epistemologies, ontologies, and research ethics are listed below. My second edition (UTP, 2018) of Do Men Mother? and a follow up book project on ecologies and genealogies of breadwinning and care (UTP, 2020) lay out this thinking in some detail.
In progress and forthcoming:
- Doucet, A. (forthcoming, 2019). Ecological narrativity: Ethico-onto-epistemological distinctions between narratives, stories, and testimonies. In N.A. McHugh and A. Doucet (Eds.), Lorraine Code:Thinking responsibly, thinking ecologically. New York: State University of New York Press.
- Doucet (in progress, forthcoming, 2021). An ecological thinking approach to family practices and work-family concepts. Special Issue of Families, Relationships, and Societies on Relationalities in Families and Intimate Practices.
- Doucet, A. (in progress) Fathering, Breadwinning and Care: Somers, Deleuze and Genealogies/ Relationalities of Concepts. Invited submission to Genealogies.
- McKay, L. and Doucet, A. (in progress) Non representational coding, the Listening Guide, and Atlas.Ti qualitative software (for edited collection by Suzanne Frieze, Sage).
Published (1996-2018)
- Doucet, A. (2018). Revisiting and remaking the Listening Guide_An ecological and ontological narrativity approach to analyzing fathering narratives In A. Humble & E. Radina (Eds.), Going behind ‘themes emerged’: Real stories of how qualitative data analysis happens. London, UK: Taylor and Francis.
- Doucet, A. (2018). … Casting our Lot wih Some Ways of Life and Not Others: Epistemic reflexivity, diffraction, epistemic responsibilities. Canadian Review of Sociology (Committing Sociology thematic section on: “Value-Neutral and Value-Oriented Epistemologies of the Social: A Conversation Across Difference”). 55(2), 302-304.
- Doucet, A. (2018) Decolonizing Family Photographs: Ecological Imaginaries and Non-Representational Ethnographies. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. JCE Doucet. 47, 729-757.
- Doucet , A. (2018) Feminist epistemologies and ethics: Ecological thinking, situated knowledges, and epistemic responsibilities. In R. Iphofen and M. Tolich. Handbook of qualitative research ethics. London: Sage.
- Doucet, A (2018) Shorelines, seashells, and seeds: Feminist Epistemologies, Ecological Thinking, and Relational Ontologies in F. Dépelteau (ed.) The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology. London: Macmillan.
- Doucet, A. (2018). Introduction_Canadian Visual Methodologies and Visual Sociology. Canadian Review of Sociology: Special Issue on Canadian Visual Methodologies and Visual Sociology. 55(2). 163-165.
- Cook, N., Doucet, A., & Rowsell, J. (2017). Visual research and social justice – guest editors’ introduction. Studies in Social Justice, 11(2), 187-194.
- Doucet, A. (2016). Is the Stay-At-Home Dad (SAHD) a Feminist Concept? A Genealogical, Relational and Feminist Critique. Sex Roles, 75, 4-14. doi: 10.1007/s11199-016-0582-5
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Doucet, A. (2015). Parental responsibilities: Dilemmas of measurement and gender equality. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(2), 224-242.
- Doucet, A. and Mauthner, N. (2012) “Knowing Responsibly: Ethics, Feminist Epistemologies and Methodologies” in M. Mauthner, M. Birch, J. Jessop and T. Miller (eds.), Ethics in Qualitative Research. Second Edition. London: Sage, 123-145.
- Doucet, A and Mauthner, N.S. (2012) “Emotions in/and Knowing” in Hunt, Alan, Walby, Kevin and Dale Spencer (Eds.) Emotions Matter. Toronto: UTP; 161-176
- Mauthner, N.S. and Doucet, A. (2008) “‘‘Knowledge once Divided Can Be Hard to Put Together Again’‘: An epistemological critique of collaborative and team-based research practices”. Sociology, 42(5): 955-969.
- Doucet, A. (2008) “From Her Side of the Gossamer Wall(s)”: Reflexive and Relational Knowing,” Qualitative Sociology, 31: 73-87.
- Doucet, A. and Mauthner, N.S. (2008) “What Can Be Known and How? Narrated Subjects and the Listening Guide”. Qualitative Research, 8 (3): 399-409.
- Doucet A. and Mauthner, N. S. (2007) “Feminist approaches to Qualitative Interviews” in P. Alasuutari, J. Brannen and L. Bickman (Eds.) Handbook of Social Research Methods. London: Sage; pp. 327-342.
- Mauthner, N. S. and Doucet, A. (2007) “Reflexive accounts and accounts of reflexivity in qualitative data analysis” in A. E. Bryman (ed.) Qualitative Research 2. Benchmark in Social Research Methods. London: Sage.
- Doucet, A. and Mauthner N. (2006) “Feminist Methodologies and Epistemologies in C. D. Bryant and D. L. Peck (Eds.) Handbook of 21st Century Sociology (26-32). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
- Mauthner, N. and Doucet, A. (2003) “Reflexive Accounts and Accounts of Reflexivity in Qualitative Data Analysis”, Sociology 37(3); pp. 413-431.
- Doucet, A. (2001) “You see the need perhaps more clearly than I have”: Exploring gendered processes of domestic responsibility, Journal of Family Issues, 22 (3), pp. 328-357, 2001.
- Mauthner , N.S. and Doucet, A. (1998) “Reflections on a Voice-Centred Relational Method of Data Analysis: Analysing Maternal and Domestic Voices” in Jane Ribbens and Rosalind Edwards (eds.), Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research: Private Lives and Public Texts. London: Sage; pp. 119-144.
- Doucet, A. (1998) Interpreting Mother-Work: Linking Ontology, Theory, Methodology and Personal Biography Canadian Woman Studies (18), pp. 52-58.
- Doucet, A. (1996) “Encouraging Voices: Towards More Creative Methods for Collecting Data on Gender and Household Labour”, in Lydia Morris and Stina Lyon (eds.) Gender Relations in the Public and the Private. London: Macmillan; pp. 156-173.
For access to other articles: please see my my google citations page, my ResearchGate page, or e-mail me: andreadoucet@mac.com