2024/05/07 by Katherine Williams · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics #Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods #Participatory Visual Research Methods
paper · doi:10.7765/9781526173898.00035
openalex publication_date 2024/05/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/03/03
Interviewing members of the far right presents feminist researchers with many challenges. These include interviewing individuals whose worldviews are antithetical to researchers’ own and the professional implications of associating with certain “unlovable” individuals, groups, or research topics (Fielding 1981: 9; Sanders McDonagh 2014). Additionally, if the goal of feminist research more broadly is emancipatory, i.e., giving members of underrepresented groups a ‘voice’, how can feminist researchers reconcile giving members of the far right a potential platform? Who is affected by our entanglements with the far right? The practical and ethical ‘dilemmas’ surrounding the selection of interviewees need careful consideration. As Ackerly (2009) points out, this is an act of “epistemological power” on the part of researchers (30, 34). Despite its best intentions, a project may privilege accounts of the ‘powerful’ due to the nature of the research being undertaken. These ‘practical and ethical dilemmas’ require extensive critical reflection. In one sense, this involves making a distinction between what is ethically “permissible” (simply, what can get approved by ethics committees) and what is ethically “right” (Blee 2018: 98). In this chapter, I reflect upon the practical and ethical challenges of conducting interviews with members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Researching the far right is an important field of inquiry. While the above dilemmas can never be entirely mitigated, I suggest a number of strategies that may help researchers better navigate this tricky epistemological terrain.