positionality
Where you stand
Positionality is the idea that a person's perspective is shaped by their social position—their race, gender, class, and other identity categories.
The term comes from academic fields like sociology and cultural studies, where it reminds researchers that their viewpoint isn't neutral: The author acknowledges her positionality as a white woman studying Black communities.
Critics sometimes use it dismissively to suggest that identity politics has overtaken objective analysis.
Interconnected identity-based discrimination study
- privilegeExclusive right or benefit
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
standpoint · reflexivity · bias · perspective · marginalization · gender · race · class
Theory of knowledge
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
- phenomenologyStudy of subjective experience
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
objectivity · postmodernism · deconstruction · Harding · ontology
Quality of self-reference
- methodologyFormal procedural framework
- qualitativeRelating to characteristics, not quantities
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
- fieldworkResearch conducted on location
interviewer · participant · observer · bias · bracketing · disclosure · transparency · autobiography
Position in space
- placementPutting somewhere specific
- coordinatesLocation-specifying number pairs
- orientationPosition relative to surroundings
- GPSSatellite-based location technology
mapping · navigation · triangulation · latitude · longitude · bearing · azimuth · fixed-point
intersectionality
Interconnected identity-based discrimination study
- privilegeExclusive right or benefit
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
subjectivity · standpoint · reflexivity · bias · perspective · marginalization · gender · race · class · sexuality
epistemology
Theory of knowledge
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
- phenomenologyStudy of subjective experience
- subjectivityPersonal viewpoint coloring perception
relativism · objectivity · postmodernism · deconstruction · Harding · ontology
reflexivity
Quality of self-reference
- methodologyFormal procedural framework
- qualitativeRelating to characteristics, not quantities
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
fieldwork · interviewer · participant · observer · bias · bracketing · disclosure · transparency · autobiography · narrative
location
Position in space
- placementPutting somewhere specific
- coordinatesLocation-specifying number pairs
- orientationPosition relative to surroundings
GPS · mapping · navigation · triangulation · latitude · longitude · bearing · azimuth · fixed-point · geometric
positionalityobjectivity
Freedom from personal bias
universalism · objectivism · universality · detachment · impartiality
position, positions, positioned, positioning, positional, pose, posed, poses, posing