Unsettling Politics, Locating Ethics

Abstract

This article traces the concept of reciprocity in historical and contemporary constructions of qualitative research methodology. It demonstrates how a particular construct—even if designed to serve as a liberatory corrective to hegemonic practices of social science (i.e., positivist)—can and does materialize into texts that reinscribe some of the foundational assumptions against which we position ourselves. Specifically, the author’s analysis explores textual and material accounts of reciprocity and the implications of these practices by centering on three nodes: (a) the construction of reciprocity historically within ethnographic discourses, (b) the (feminist) practice of conceptualizing reciprocity in terms of individual interpersonal relationships in the field, and (c) deconstructive approaches to ethnography and the implications for reconceptualizing reciprocity. Through this investigation, the author argues that deconstructive analysis encourages researchers to sustain a commitment to issues of power but redirects the locus of attention from individual exchanges to the representations we produce.