Subjective emotions, political implications: thinking through tensions and contradictions in feminist knowledgeproduction

Abstract

Based on an ongoing research project in which we explore practices, strategies and visions within feminist activism in a Swedish context, this paper emerges from experiences during fieldwork with feminist activist groups. Focusing on tensions and contradictions encountered during fieldwork, this article problematizes the social and emotional dimensions of research. Through a discussion of our interactions with the research participants as subjective relationships and as relationships of power, this article suggests that a closer engagement with the research subject, and with what she can learn from the relationship with the research object, can challenge researchers’ implicit assumptions and emotional attachments, contributing to a destabilization of power relations in knowledge production.