Great Expectations: Studying My Own Community [Büyük Beklentiler: Kendi Etnik Grubunu Çalışmak]

Setenay Nil Doğan
2017 Journal of Caucasian Studies  
The literature on methodology in social sciences underlines advantages for the insider researcher in addition to more subtle problems and pitfalls in terms of the relationship between the researcher and the researched. This paper aims to explore my experiences as the insider researcher studying Circassians in Turkey, my own community and discuss their implications for researching Circassians in particular and ethnic groups in general. As the insider researcher position provided "great
more » ... ns" on the side of the researched and hence some critical advantages in the field for the researcher, the dual categories of insider and outsider are in reality rather fluid and contested. This article is an attempt to explore space in between: the negotiations, complexities and fluidities of positionality in the field and hence in the processes of academic knowledge production.
doi:10.21488/jocas.337785 fatcat:tvenyasjbvcu5okuynh2ia3oyy