Positionality, post-phenomenology, and the politics of theory

Abstract

The concept of positionality has long been at the heart of feminist geographic scholarship, though today it often remains unengaged within male-dominated segments of the discipline. In this article, I bring the concept of positionality to bear on one area of contemporary geographic theory, post-phenomenology, to highlight how feminist and other critical epistemological stances are rendered improbable, if not logically impossible, by the terms of debate of this emerging subfield. By deconstructing ideas of the subject, experience, identity, and social categories, post-phenomenology dispenses with the critical vocabulary at the heart of feminist claims to knowledge and critical epistemological thought more generally. Reaching beyond the frame of theoretical debate, I reflect on the reception of my own work in the field (through the process of peer-review) to demonstrate that these issues are not mere intellectual differences or positions that occur in some kind of social vacuum; rather, they illuminate the dynamics of identity and knowledge production in geography more broadly. Ultimately, I advocate for an attention to positionality as an antidote to the epistemological and theoretical limitations of post-phenomenology and as a way to foster more critical, inclusive, and accountable dialogues in this emerging field and geography more broadly.