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‘Good That You Are One of Us’: Positionality and Reciprocity in Conducting Fieldwork in Kenya’s Flower Industry

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The Politics of Conducting Research in Africa

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the maze of intersecting identities, positionality, and reciprocity that African researchers often have to navigate and negotiate when they engage in the process of conducting research ‘back home’. Nungari Mwangi argues that positionality for African researchers reorienting themselves towards home means a deeper critical engagement with a variety of selves. Bringing to life encounters which saw her at times emphasizing some aspects of her Kenyan identity while downplaying others, and at other times slipping in between identities, Mwangi disrupts well-worn dichotomies that position researchers as either inside or outside the community being researched, offering a rich understanding of positionality while simultaneously problematizing the idea of home.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Nungari Mwangi

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  1. Nungari Mwangi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

    Lyn Johnstone

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Mwangi, N. (2019). ‘Good That You Are One of Us’: Positionality and Reciprocity in Conducting Fieldwork in Kenya’s Flower Industry. In: Johnstone, L. (eds) The Politics of Conducting Research in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95531-5_2

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