A Critical Reflexive Approach to Sex Research: Interviews With Men Who Pay for Sex

Description

This volume is a methodologically focused book that offers rich insights into the, often secret, subjectivities of men who pay for sex in South Africa. It centres on the interview context, outlining a critical reflexive approach to understanding how knowledge is co-produced by both the interviewer and the participant in research about sex. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Series preface for Monique Huysamen’s A Critical Reflexive Approach to Sex Research: Interviews with Men Who Pay for Sex 1 Setting the scene: researching men who pay for sex in South Africa Arriving at the research Paying for sex in context: representations of sex work in South Africa Sex work and discourses of dirt and disease: a historically informed account An introduction to men who pay for sex Who are the men who pay for sex? What motivates men to pay for sex? Outline of the book 2 An assemblage of theories, methods, and practice: towards a critical reflexive approach Introduction Epistemological framework An assemblage of theories Feminist poststructuralism Discursive approaches Performance, performativity, and queer theory Intersectionality and feminist decolonial theories The psychosocial approach Theorising the interview encounter Reflexivity An eclectic approach to data analysis Discourse analysis Narrative analysis The research process: interviewing men about paying for sex Research aims The researcher Recruiting participants The participants Theorising participants as arrivals Interviews Transcription Research journal Analysing data Concluding thoughts: theoretical eclecticism and the process of unknowing 3 Reasons for arriving: confessions, excitement, and intimacy Introduction The interview as a confessional The interview as an opportunity for excitement and risk Reasons for arriving: intimacy and connection Concluding thoughts 4 Defences and desires in the research encounter Introduction Theorising interviewer and participant as sexual subjects Theorising interviewer and the participant as defended subjects Defences and desires: examples from the field Dan: the interview as a sexual encounter Jez: consent and coercion in the interview Carl: the researcher as the desiring subject Concluding thoughts: reflecting on silences in the interview process 5 “Out of Africa”: critical reflexivity as decolonial method? Introduction Applying intersectionality and feminist decolonial theories to critical reflexive practice Discourses of disease: the intersections of gender, race, and class in men’s talk about paying for sex Splitting sex workers Producing the Other The intersections of race and class with discourses of dirt and disease The doubleness of discourse in racist narratives about sex work The idealised white body: proximity to whiteness and internalised racism The researcher’s positionality and the coloniality of gender in the interview Concluding thoughts: methodology as pedagogy and praxis 6 Using the critical reflexive approach in your research Introduction The nine elements of the critical reflexive approach 1 Research arrivals 2 Careful eclecticism 3 Theorising the interview as a social encounter 4 Defended subjects 5 Sexual subjects 6 Producing the Other 7 An intersectional approach to the research encounter 8 A historically informed approach to the research 9 The research journal as research tool and data Concluding thoughts Index