Stuating knowledges: positionality, reflexivities and other tactic

From the readings of this week it calls my attention Gillian Rose's article Stuating knowledges: positionality, reflexivities and other tactics. In this article, Rose proposes to review the position of reflexivity as a strategy to highlight geographical knowledge. It also ensures that reflexivity can be formulated in terms of visibility, which allows us to move into the identity of the researcher and outward in its relation to its own research, thus generating a broader and more critical vision. From this reflective double vision, we can observe the interior and exterior of the object of study and of its researcher. Also, this identity of the researcher is categorized by Ross as positions within multidimensional geography of power relations. For this reason, it is important to consider the multiplex 'self' assumed by the researcher, considering their race, nationality, age, gender, social and economic status, which may influence their analysis and the results of their research.

Therefore, I have begun to reevaluate my place of enunciation in this geography of knowledge and how the aspects mentioned by Rose can affect the results of my research. When examining the diaries of the French nuns of the Sacred Heart of Jesus it is inevitable to take into consideration their social status within the Chilean territory. They make a reading of the territory and its inhabitants from an organized and structured vision that has as a reference to Europe. In that position, they feel they are carriers of knowledge that allows them to judge the other, and thus establish social and racial divisions. I believe that this reading has helped me to question and examine the multiple I have been assuming during my research and look for that unfolding in the diaries of these women.

On the other hand, Rose says that researchers should reflect on how their research is valued within the field and the scientific community. In this case the journals of these traveling nuns all hope to be defined within a specific genre, which is part of my research. Although we could say that they are a hybrid script because they converge in travel literature, autobiography and some aspects of conventual literature, how they should be read remains to be answered.


  Rose, Gillian. “Situating Knowledges: Positionality, Reflexivities and Other Tactics.” Progress in Human Geography, vol. 21, no. 3, June 1997, pp. 305–320.