Engaging with feminist postcolonial concerns through participatory action research and intersectionality

Abstract

This paper deals with the challenges of doing fieldwork as a Western researcher in the “Global South” after the (feminist) postcolonial turn. Debates within developmental geography have addressed the politics of fieldwork, questions of positionality and collaborative, participatory ways to produce knowledge. We intend to enter this discussion to find constructive ways of conducting feminist postcolonial research. Drawing on our own experiences as German researchers and development practitioners in Latin America, we discuss the potential and limits of two central feminist postcolonial approaches in development research and practice: participatory (action) research and intersectionality. Our reflections aim to show how development research and practice may benefit from integrating feminist postcolonial approaches.