Prueba de validación médica

‘Feminist methodology is specifically concerned with how, or whether, knowledge produced about social life can be connected with the social realities of women… Feminist methodology is informed by feminist epistemology; in particular, who can be agents of knowledge, what can be known and how knowledge is validated, and the relationship between knowing and being (ontology)’ (Landman, 2006: 430).

Methodology is about linking theory to practice in social research. It is, as Harding (1987) puts it, ‘a theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed; it includes accounts of how the general structure of theory finds its application in particular scientific disciplines’ (Harding, 1987: 3). Stanley and Wise (1993) urged for a feminist sociology that does not only focus on women and their experiences but also on men and their behaviours (Stanley and Wise, 1993). I suggest that gender relations, and women’s experiences, are integral to all areas of studies, especially in relation to ethnicity and nationalism, because gender, ethnicity and nationalism intersect, and looking at this intersection is important for understanding narratives of ethnicity and nationalism. The application of feminist methodologies can provide ‘an inclusion of women not as a special case deviating from the norm, but as one of many different groups in an open and heterogeneous universe’ (Duncan, 1996: 3); this is how feminist methodologies are applied in this research.

In the initial research design I had planned to interview both men and women and to include a gender analysis of the data. However, in the field I began to realise that I should not only look at gender differences. I began to develop a feminist consciousness, and became more aware of how gender relations are used as ethnic and national boundary markers. This research includes an evaluation of the ‘Jordan First’ nationalist campaign and books of national and civic education, and as I began analysing these documents in the field, I started to notice that in these documents there is particular emphasis on gender roles. Books of national and civic education include sections about the role of men and women in society, and about the family

unit as the basis of the ‘Arab’ society. In addition, I started to notice that interviewees often referred to gender relations as group identity markers. Moreover, my daily exposure to gendered narratives of nationalism in the media, in the workplace, and with friends, made me aware of the importance of gender in popular representations of nationalism, and the importance of looking at the intersecting narratives of gender and nationalism. Therefore, the adoption of a flexible methodological approach helped me to develop a well-suited theoretical framework for the research that is informed by the research questions and the nature of the research. This also allowed me to develop a suitable methodology determined according to the topic under inquiry (Blaxter et al., 2006, Bryman, 2004, Crotty, 1998, Patton, 2002).

The analysis process also revealed that narratives of gender are as central as narratives of ethnicity, and nationalism to this research. Riessman (1993) for example refers to a ‘click moment (vi)’ between her and the interview transcripts she attempted to analyse, when she realised the importance of narratives (Riessman, 1993). As explained in the previous chapter, where I suggest the use of narratives to explore elements of ethnicity and nationalism, there are also gender narratives. I found that gender narratives, as well as ethnic narratives, are apparent throughout the interview transcripts, and the questions yielded lots of narratives. Riessman (2004) states,

‘As nations and governments construct preferred narratives about history, so do social movements, organisations, scientists, other professionals, ethnic/racial groups, and individuals in stories of experience’ (Riessman, 2004: 705).

I believe that this research is a feminist research because it does not focus on ‘introducing another meta-narrative, one based on woman, women, or feminist standpoint epistemology’ (Zalewski, 2000: 62), but suggests moving away from viewing ‘women’ as a category deviating from the ‘male’ norm. This is to argue for a move away from viewing women as the oppressed, and men and other actors as

oppressors, and towards considering gender relations as systems that are situated socially and changing, and that they can be (re)constructed and (re)configured like ethnicities and nationalisms. ‘Men, women, boys, and girls are located within systems where expectations around roles and responsibilities are sites of struggle and definition’ (Trinder, 2000: 50); however, there are also other intersecting and interlocking systems that shape social actors’ life experiences as well, such as ethnicity. Moreover, studies of ethnicity and nationalism have often ignored how narratives of ethnicity are gendered, and narratives of gender are ethnicised. Therefore, the use of a feminist approach in this study is not only suitable for understanding and analysing the interview transcripts, but is also essential to expand the literature on ethnicity and nationalism in the Middle East, which often tends to disregard gendered narratives of ethnicity, and the ethnicised narratives of gender.

This research can also be situated as a narrative account of the research participants (re)constructions of ethnicity and nationalism.

‘The concept of narrative has been central to the feminist critique of objectivist accounts of individualisation which are regarded not only as determinist, but also as tacitly reproducing a masculinist view of the world. Narrative becomes a central analytical tool for feminism because a cluster of issues associated with gender and sexuality are regarded as particularly amenable to narration’ (McNay, 1999: 318).

Finally, I am identifying and analysing narratives because of my belief that ‘social life itself is storied’ (Somers, 1994: 614), and by highlighting the narrative accounts of research participants, I am also emphasising that ethnicity and nationalism are subjective, and that the research participants are agents contributing to those narrations.