Queered methodologies for equality, diversity and inclusion researchers

Abstract

A chapter on queered methodologies for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) scholars is apposite at a time when queer theory has made recent inroads into the field of methodology and methods within the social sciences (Browne & Nash, 2010; Warner, 2004; Hammers & Brown, 2004; Haritaworn, 2008; Hegarty, 2008). However, lessons have yet to be drawn from this body of literature for organisational scholars undertaking empirical research on EDI issues in the workplace. This neglect is a missed opportunity to study these research themes from alternative perspectives that mount a challenge to ontologies and epistemologies that have become mired within and reproduce heteronormative constructions of sexuality and gender. As such, this chapter grows out of an effort to examine the potential for queered methodologies to problematize the multifarious expressions of organisational heteronormativity by generating research on how lives are lived queerly – at odds with and beyond the reach of heteronormativity – in the workplace. As such, this chapter focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) sexualities and genders which, as I have argued elsewhere (Rumens, 2017), are typically regarded as the standard fare of queer theory research. In this way, I explore how queered methodologies can enable EDI researchers to challenge the heteronormativity of methodological practice, especially as LGBT people have been excluded from important methodological sites in the past or, where they have figured centrally, it has often been to their detriment when research instruments have been used to detect signs of ‘homosexuality’ within contexts where, for example, it is not tolerated and criminalised. Unpacking these issues across the pages of this chapter, I begin by introducing queer theory before discussing an emergent literature on queer methodologies. Against this backdrop, I draw upon my research to discuss the queer ontologies and epistemologies that are central to my work as an organisational queer theorist within the EDI sub-discipline. The challenges of queering methodologies are discussed before the chapter concludes