Extended Abstract

At last year’s daylong ASAC colloquium on Indigenous research, Teddy Carter (Michel) explicated the nature and importance of self-location as an Indigenous research practice. Self-location has parallels in other disciplines and research traditions, especially critical and feminist traditions. Terms include (self-) position, (self-) positionality, and (research) standpoint. Common among these traditions is the recognition that all research is produced by people who have particular backgrounds, knowledge bases, and interests. These factors influence the choice of topics and methods that researchers use. Position statements in research provide insight into the factors that influence the process of the research. In contrast, colonial approaches to (social) science assume that research choices are objective and value-free, most commonly illustrated in quantitative research designs. Thus, including position statements organizational research is a decolonizing research practice.

Writing position statements and discussing them in small groups is the focus of this workshop. Three people will talk for ten minutes each about the use of position statements in critical, feminist, and Indigenous research, why they should be used in all organization studies research, and changes needed from journal editors and reviewers. Each PDW participant will then spend 20 minutes crafting a position statements related to a research topic of their interest. For the next 25 minutes, participants will form small groups and share their statements with each other and discuss them developmentally.

We request pre-registration so that we can send participants a reading list. Nevertheless, we welcome anyone who is curious to attend and learn. 

Workshop Facilitators: 

David L. Deephouse (Primary Contact), Professor, U. of Alberta. david.deephouse@ualberta.ca

Kai Lamertz, Professor, Athabasca University. kailamertz@athabascau.ca  

William M. Foster, Professor, University of Alberta. wfoster@ualberta.ca