Dimensions of Positioning. Conflictual Dynamics in the Field of Anti-“Genderism”

Abstract

Abstract How do collaboration and contestation evolve in a heterogeneous field with conflictual dynamics? Re-evaluating my research on agitations against gender studies within academia and the reactions of the discipline from a methodological and ethical perspective, I will show how entanglements of self- and external positionings in the course of fieldwork lead to (unexpected) constellations of (ant-)agonism, pressures and constraints, shaping not only decisions regarding collaboration and contestation, but also modes of going public. Based on these experiences, and drawing on historical as well as contemporary discourses within the ethnological disciplines, I will conclude with an attempt at conceptualization in the form of a seven-dimensional coordinate system which outlines the role of different dimensions relevant for positioning and being positioned in the field as prerequisites for decisions on collaboration and contestation.