Abstract
This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative. We elaborate our argument with reference to examples and contemplations drawn from our experiences researching what Brexit means for Britons living in the EU-27 for the BrExpats research project, which was informed from the outset by reflexive practice. We outline three (of a number of) potential strategies for engaging in reflexive practice: reflexive positioning, reflexive navigating and reflexive interpreting or sense-making. We acknowledge that these are not separate actions in practice but are conceptually distinguishable aspects of an ongoing reflexive practice, informed by our understanding of the cognitive relationship between reflexivity and practice theory.
Highlights
This paper contributes to a longstanding tradition that understands the research process as a social process, with reflexivity –‘examining how the researcher and intersubjective elements impinge on, and even transform, research’ (Finlay, 2002: 210) – a vital and Qualitative Research 00(0)central dimension of its practice
Central dimension of its practice. Pairing this with live sociology, our contribution explicitly responds to Finlay’s (2002) call to consider how researchers do reflexivity, drawing on our recent experiences of researching Brexit in the lives of British citizens living in the European Union (EU)-27 for the BrExpats research project
Our argument builds on well-developed understandings of reflexivity and positionality that orient these as concerns about power; how it is made in and through the research encounter and how it shapes knowledge production, while scaling up these concerns to account for the broader set of relationships at the heart of our research
Summary
This paper contributes to a longstanding tradition that understands the research process as a social process, with reflexivity –‘examining how the researcher and intersubjective elements impinge on, and even transform, research’ (Finlay, 2002: 210) – a vital and Qualitative Research 00(0)central dimension of its practice (see Lumsden, 2013). We highlight how we have put reflexive practice to work in our research on the Brexit negotiations and how these have been lived and experienced by British citizens resident in the EU-27, and how such practice has continued to inform and shape our interpretations.
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