Le genre en train de se faire: trouble dans le terrain

Le genre en train de se faire: trouble dans le terrain

In this introduction, we present an “undisciplined” look, both retrospective and prospective, at feminist ethnography. Reviewing how we got here, we highlight three important inflexions that the development of gender studies have articulated over the past forty years : first, of the gendered dynamics undergirding the production of scientific knowledge ; second, of the reifying and discriminating effects of social systems of categorization ; and third, of the heteronormative biologizing and binary assumptions on which the gender order is based, and which lie at the core of modern thinking about the division between nature and culture. Looking forward, we outline four areas of exploration characteristic of the multi-disciplinary field of contemporary feminist ethnography, leading in various degrees to a “decentering” of the research focus, a complexification of the question of voice, experimentation with alternative representational practices and an ethic of care, attention and engagement. We conclude by encouraging interested scholars to continue to experiment with the innovative and “troubling” perspectives upon which gender analysis was founded and will continue to build.

Keywords

• gender studies
• feminist ethnography
• situated knowledge
• sex/gender distinction
• new feminist materialisms
• intersectionality
• representation
• ethics of care