Being an insider and outsider: whiteness as a key dimension of difference

• Published in: Qualitative research : QR Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 340 - 354
• Main Author: Britton, Joanne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2020; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Democratization; Epistemology; Exploitation; Forces and relations of production; Men; Muslims; Power; Researcher subject relations; Researchers; Subjectivity; subjectivity; race; power relations; insider outsider; reflexivity; knowledge production; whiteness
• ISSN: 1468-7941; 1741-3109
• DOI: 10.1177/1468794119874599

This article demonstrates the significance of engaging with whiteness as a key dimension of difference shaping research in multi-faceted ways. I critically reflect on a research project that included interviews with Muslim men in Rotherham, a northern English town that had experienced a child sexual exploitation crisis involving Pakistani Muslim men. It raised significant methodological and epistemological issues regarding my position in the research, as a white female researcher, and my relationships with local Pakistani Muslim men and women. I highlight the fluidity of my insider–outsider position through exploring political and ethical dilemmas involved in carrying out the research and structural and experiential aspects of researcher subjectivity. I show how being white both facilitated and obstructed the research as I steered my way through a highly sensitive set of circumstances and how engaging with whiteness is key in democratising research and shedding light on unequal power relations in knowledge production.