Militantly ‘studying up’?: (ab)using whiteness for oppositional research

This paper develops the idea of militantly ‘studying up’. Through a discussion of research into the relationship between migrants and social/labour movements in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it explores the way in which my positionality both helped and hindered the (militant) research process. As the possibility for militant research seemed to recede, by interrogating the antagonisms bound up in the disjuncture between my perceived and my performed positionality, I was able to retain a commitment to militant research/research militancy. The movement to a form of oppositional (auto)ethnography was underpinned by an (ab)use of my whiteness. This touched on new possibilities for militant research, and also afforded further reflection on the structuring power of whiteness itself. Situating itself against-and-beyond discussions of militant research, this paper explores not only the rich potential but also the difficulties and limitations of such a methodology. In this regard it foregrounds discussion of failure as a key reflexive strategy. Ultimately it argues that there is potentially value in ‘studying up’ within militant (migration) research, but that concerns surround the (re-)reification of the very identities and structures that are intended to be deconstructed

Psychogeography and Feminist Methodology

This paper will suggest how a psychogeographical methodology can be developed as a new method for feminist psychologists, in the study of urban and rural environments. One of the limitations of situationist psychogeography is its grounding in the male gaze. In addition, men have had privileged access to and time to participate in such activities. Drawing on Feminist geography, Queer theory and Gay/Lesbian writing, core concepts such as embodied subjectivity and heteronormativity can be used to develop the theoretical base of a feminist psychogeographical methodology. In this paper I will outline how feminist psychogeographical research might be conducted; the ‘situationist‘ approach of using bodies as research ‘instruments’ means that innovative data may be gathered through the experience of walking and seeing the world through the situationist lens. Finally, the implications of this work for personal and political social transformation will be addressed

Visualising Manchester: Exploring new ways to study urban environments with reference to situationist theory, the dérive and qualitative research

This paper will outline how mobile methods and documentary strategies (diaries, cameras and maps) can be used to document and reflect on the research process and to consider the political implications of urbanism and gentrification. I draw particular inspiration from the work of the Situationist International and their use of detournement and the dérive. I will refer to a long term project in Manchester city where I have used a situationist qualitative methodology. I will discuss the usefulness of the situationist tactics of the dérive and detournement for qualitative research in psychology. The wider aims of conducting this research are: to extend qualitative methods in psychology; to further politicise qualitative methods, to consider the implications of the gentrification of environments; to reflect on the social roles of the researcher as academic, activist and artist and to consider what changes are possible as a result of doing this sort of research

Walking as a ‘Radicalized’ Critical Psychological Method? A Review of Academic, Artistic and Activist Contributions to the Study of Social Environments

The study of social environments is a neglected site of research not only in psychology, but across academic disciplines ranging from human geography to cultural studies. This paper will review contributions to studying social environments through academic writings, situationism and psychogeographical groups. It will be argued that disorientating walking practices can be used as a means to reflect on experiences of places in order to begin to think how social environments could be radically changed. It is important to question the taken for granted ways that people make sense of urban environments. It is argued that psychogeographic practice can be used to extend qualitative epistemologies and methods to argue for a ‘turn to place’ in psychology and to open up new methods and approaches in critical psychology. Finally, the implications for radicalizing critical psychological research methods will be considered in relation to the current status of critical psychology, which suffers from an apathetic vision of radicalism and criticalit

Metropolitan Strategies, Psychogeographic Investigations

The ideas and practices of the Situationist International (SI) and the Italian autonomists of the 1960s and 1970s continue to provide inspiration for developing strategies for contesting capitalism. This essay proposes to bring together concepts from these traditions, working between the Situationist concept of psychogeography and the dérive, with autonomist writings on the shaping of the metropolis. Drawing on the autonomist concepts of class composition analysis and conducting a workers’ inquiry, it will be suggested that they can be usefully combined with psychogeographic investigations and methods to understand the shifting terrain of surplus value production within the metropolis based on an analysis of these transformations to develop new forms of political action and ways to sabotage the accumulation process. </jats:p