Positionality and reflexivity
Examine your place in the enquiry
Positionality describes the researcher's social location, commitments and relationship to the setting. Reflexivity is the continuing examination of how those relationships shape access, questions, evidence and interpretation. Both matter for insiders and outsiders, including quantitative researchers making modelling or measurement decisions. A useful account connects the researcher's position to specific methodological consequences.
Use throughout research where relationships, institutional interests, assumptions or interpretive choices can shape the knowledge produced, especially in insider organisational enquiry and sensitive participant research.
Strengths
- Makes consequential researcher influence visible
- Supports more accountable interpretation and relationships
Limitations
- Can become a performative personal statement
- Excessive self-focus can displace the research question
Know the boundary
Reflexivity does not eliminate subjectivity or require disclosing irrelevant personal information.