DESCRIPTION

Positionality refers to an understanding and recognition of the researcher's standpoint: the standpoint from which knowledge is produced. Foregrounding of positionality can take the form of brief acknowledgement of a researcher's positioning - e.g. via a positionality statement - or more sustained, holistic and embedded self-examination of the impact of the researcher's positioning at all stages of the research. The latter is termed reflexivity and is addressed in a separate entry; we focus here on positionality itself and its articulation in positionality statements.

Reich (2021) argues that an attention to positionality is one of the defining aspects of qualitative research. The concept has historically often been discussed in terms of insider/outsider identities - whether one is or is not a member of the group of participants with whom one is conducting research, a phenomenon that has been both explored and complicated by such scholars as Katyal and King (2011) and Yip (2024), echoing Folkes' (2022) assertion that 'simplistic notions of insider/outsider fail to recognise the transient and multifaceted nature of positionality' (1315). This multidimensionality is evidenced by such theorisations as Berger's (2015), for whom key aspects of the researcher/s' positioning include 'personal characteristics, such as gender, race, affiliation, age, sexual orientation, immigration status, personal experiences, linguistic tradition, beliefs, biases, preferences, theoretical, political and ideological stances, and emotional responses to participants' (220). These aspects may affect the research in three main ways: ease of access to the field (participants may be more willing to interact with a researcher with whom they share aspects of identity), the nature of the relationship between researcher and participant, and the impact of a researcher's background and worldview on the methodological and interpretive approaches taken (Berger, 2015, 220).

Positionality statements themselves are short statements in a published article that clarify the aspects of a researcher's identity and perspective that have shaped the conception and implementation of the research. They function variously to contextualise the work within its initiating standpoint, foreground the impacts and limitations of the researcher's perspective, or in some cases, enhance the research's credibility - where the researcher is a member of the participant community, for example. Such statements - and particularly their status as often the sole site of self-examination - have been subject to critique from a range of perspectives. From a practical perspective, Savolainen et al. (2023) criticise the discretionary nature of positionality statements (researchers decide what to disclose) and the fact that such disclosures take place from the same position as the work itself and are therefore subject to similar blind spots. Sibbald et al. (2025) further highlight that expectations around scope and depth of positionality statements are not consistent and that expectations regarding disclosure in positionality statements may lead to authors becoming identifiable during double-blind peer review processes or even require researchers to 'out' themselves as a member of a particular group, entailing risks for already marginalised researchers.

From a postcolonial perspective, while recognising the value of positionality statements in establishing credibility and acknowledging privilege, Massoud (2022) highlights several negative consequences for researchers from marginalised groups, including the idea that such disclosures make marginalised scholars vulnerable and can lead to their work being regarded as less objective; that positionality statements require emotional labour and may require revisiting painful experiences; and that they may lead to bias in peer review. Gani and Khan (2024) further suggest that declarative manifestations of reflexivity in the form of positionality statements are used to claim unearned 'legitimacy capital', with the result that 'the person of color is instrumentalized for the researcher's need to perform the critical scholar' (6). Positionality statements, they suggest, 'also constitute a preemptive self-defense mechanism for the white critical researcher that actually forecloses deeper probing into power inequalities' (8).

In response to such criticisms, Boveda and Annamma (2023) present fellow researchers with a series of questions aimed at informing the creation of positionality discussions that move beyond tokenistic statements or claims to authority via proximity to marginalised identities. Seeking to provoke a more complete exploration of the multidimensional power relations at play in research with marginalised communities, Boveda and Annamma moreover advocate for the use of 'positioning' as an active verb rather than a static utterance, gesturing towards a more sustained and holistic concept of positioning which approaches that of reflexivity - an ongoing process of self-examination in which the authority of the researcher is decentred. A movement from perfunctory 'shopping list' positionality (a mere enumeration of researcher identities) to more fully reflexive approaches has also been advocated by such scholars as Folkes (2022), while a suggestion that positionality (or 'subjectivity') statements are reimagined as relational, living documents open to continuing reworking has recently been made by Shelton (2024), echoing Rose's (2022) consideration of qualitative researcher positionalities as both dynamic and embodied.

Tools to assist researchers in reflecting on and articulating their own positioning include Jacobson and Mustafa's (2019) Social Identity Map. Developed in the context of critical qualitative health research, the map offers a simple three-tiered structure to aid researchers in reflecting on their social positionality, while recognising the fluidity of social identity across time, situation, and stage in the research.

See also: reflexivity

References

Berger, R. (2015). 'Now I See It, Now I Don't: Researcher's Position and Reflexivity in Qualitative Research', Qualitative Research, 15.2, 219–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112468475

Boveda, M., and Annamma, S.A. (2023). 'Beyond Making a Statement: An Intersectional Framing of the Power and Possibilities of Positioning', Educational Researcher, 52.5, 306–14. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231167149

Folkes, L. (2022). 'Moving Beyond 'Shopping List' Positionality: Using Kitchen Table Reflexivity and In/visible Tools to Develop Reflexive Qualitative Research', Qualitative Research, 23(5), 1301-1318. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221098922

Gani, J.K., and Khan, R.M. (2024). 'Positionality Statements as a Function of Coloniality: Interrogating Reflexive Methodologies', International Studies Quarterly, 68.2. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqae038

Jacobson, D., and Mustafa, N. (2019). 'Social Identity Map: A Reflexivity Tool for Practicing Explicit Positionality in Critical Qualitative Research', International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919870075

Katyal, K. R., and King, M. (2011). '"Outsiderness" and "Insiderness" in a Confucian Society: Complexity of Contexts', Comparative Education, 47(3), 327–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2011.586765

Massoud, M.F. (2022). 'The Price of Positionality: Assessing the Benefits and Burdens of Self‐identification in Research Methods', Journal of Law and Society, 49(S1), S64–S86. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12372

Reich, J.A. (2021). 'Power, Positionality, and the Ethic of Care in Qualitative Research', Qualitative Sociology, 44(4), 575–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-021-09500-4

Rose, J. (2022). 'Dynamic Embodied Positionalities: The Politics of Class and Nature through a Critical Ethnography of Homelessness', Ethnography, 23(4), 451–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138120913061

Savolainen, J., et al. (2023). 'Positionality and Its Problems: Questioning the Value of Reflexivity Statements in Research', Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(6), 1331–1338. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221144988

Shelton, S.A. (2024). 'Queer(Ing) the Bias Monster and Subjectivities: Shifting From Confessions to Reflexivity', International Review of Qualitative Research, 17.4. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447241245980

Sibbald, K.R., et al. (2025). 'Positioning Positionality and Reflecting on Reflexivity: Moving From Performance to Practice', Qualitative Health Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323241309230

Yip, S. Y. (2024). 'Positionality and Reflexivity: Negotiating Insider-Outsider Positions within and across Cultures', International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 47(3), 222–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2023.2266375