Race, Gender, and Positionality in Urban Planning Research

Abstract

Reflexivity within planning research has emerged as central to a series of epistemological and methodological debates. There has been less discussion, however, about how research positionalities might intersect with assumptions regarding gendered and raced identities. Writing from within the field of urban planning I consider how a pervasive inattentiveness to the racial and gendered dynamics of the wider field obscures the articulation of the complexities of positionality and reflexivity within the research process. I call for a greater engagement with positionality within disciplinary debates in order to engage with the differential demands placed on feminist scholars of color.