by Ruth Nekura
Abstract
Reflective conversations are used by us feminists to question ourselves and the world from multiple perspectives. In this article, I reflect on my experience of using reflective conversations as a research methodology to explore how feminist knowledges are built through everyday informal conversations. I used this approach in a study that addressed violence against women by examining African feminist perspectives on state responsibility. I argue that these spaces of everyday informal conversations are a site of feminist knowledge building, enabled by a congruence of factors including a shared political analysis which makes it possible to link personal experiences to structural and systemic patterns of discrimination. While using this methodology, critical reflections emerge on the politics of the research process including questions of ethics, structure and form; what it means to be both researcher and participant; and the politics of time. In the end, the political value of headspace is clear – time and space to produce knowledge are central to determining who holds epistemic power.
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02_FA2025_Vol6.1-VGP1_Feature-Article_Nekura