Je suis en thèse
At the threshold of the second year of my PhD journey, I realise Je suis en thèse and I mean it.
One of the evidences is that I am not only questioning emerging thoughts and synapses between them but also the process of thinking. Every day as I open my books and start writing I am reminded of French philosopher Montaigne seminal question: Que sais-je? What do I know?
What exactly is thinking? When at the reception of sense impressions, a memory picture emerges, this is not yet thinking, and when such pictures form series, each member of which calls for another, this too is not yet thinking. When however, a certain picture turns up in many of such series then – precisely through such a return – it becomes an ordering element for such series, in that it connects series, which in themselves are unconnected, such an element becomes an instrument, a concept.
Albert Einstein (1949) Autobiographical Notes. p.7
My topic is Women and Cities. As a woman living for most of my life in cities, I am immersed in reflexivity. By reflexivity I mean the process of examining my own beliefs, judgments and practices at every stage of the research and how these may influence the research. I am aware gender influences who do the research, how and which research questions are identified as important. It also informs which methodologies are chosen, the case studies and data sets used, and the analysis undertaken. For an increasing number of researchers, these considerations are explicit, but for others, they remain implicit, or even unconscious.
If positionality refers to what we know and believe then reflexivity is about what we do with this knowledge. Reflexivity involves questioning one’s own taken for granted assumptions. Essentially, it involves drawing attention to the researcher as opposed to ‘brushing her or him under the carpet’ and pretending that she or he did not have an impact or influence. It requires openness and an acceptance that the researcher is part of the research
Linda Finlay (1998) ‘Reflexivity: an essential component for all research?’, British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61, 10: 453-456.
Since 1933 sitting in front of the entrance of La Sorbonne in the square Paul Painlevé we find Michel de Montaigne. Before exams, students of the Sorbonne touch the shoe of the French philosopher, and greet “Hi, Montaigne”- a habit that turned into a tradition, then belief. Montaigne’s shoe is said to bring success and luck to students.
As I strike the right foot of Montaigne I start one more day of research questioning my own attitudes, thought processes, values, assumptions, pre-concepts and am reminded Que sais-je? Truly.