Feminism and Method

Nancy A. Naples is Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the University of Connecticut. She has published several books, including Women's Activism andGlobalization, Teaching Feminist Activism, and GrassrootsWarriors, which was a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (all published by Routledge).

"This is an exciting and brilliant book that transforms sociological method...This is frankly feminist, frankly critical, frankly committed to issues of social justice. It's committed also to an idea of research that reaches from people's own and necessarily divergent experiences into the forms of power that shape them...Women's studies has needed a research method and here is one that is wholly committed to feminist objectives and principles." -- Dorothy E. Smith"A stimulating, important, and accessible book for classroom use. Naples brings distinctive insights from her work in policy analysis and grassroots activism to her explorations of epistemological and methodological issues. She demonstrates how concerns for social justice can advance the growth of knowledge." -- Sandra Harding, editor of The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader

• Part I: Introduction Chapter 1 Feminism and Method Chapter 2 Epistemology, Feminist Methodology, and the Politics of Method Part II: Standpoint Epistemologies, Reflective Practice, and Feminist EthnographyChapter 3 Standpoint Analysis and Reflective PracticeChapter 4 The Insider/Outsider Debate: A Feminist RevisitingChapter 5 Standpoint Epistemology: Explicating Multiple DimensionsPart III: Feminist Materialism, Discourse Analysis, and Policy StudiesChapter 6 Community Control: Mapping the Changing ContextChapter 7 The Gendered Social Contract: Constructing the New ConsensusPart IV: Activism, Narrative, and EmpowermentChapter 8 Bringing Everyday Life to Policy AnalysisChapter 9 The Survivor Discourse: Narrative, Empowerment, and ResistanceChapter 10 Survivors Going Public: Reflections on the Limits of Participatory ResearchPart V: ConclusionChapter 11 Negotiating the Politics of Methodappendicesnotesreferencesindex