ABSTRACT

Not only is the self entwined in society; it owes society its existence in the most literal sense.

(Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia, pp. 153-4)

Mothers and daughters

Finding out ...

Power and responsibility in the research process

Most of the academic work we read is the end product of a long process, but we rarely have any

understanding of this process. The representations of knowledge as a final product mask the

conditions of its production. ... If we have done research we all know that it is a difficult, messy,

fraught, emotional, tiring and yet rewarding process; we know all about the elements involved,

but how does anyone else get to know? All they usually see is the clean, crisp, neatly finished

product. Intellectuals may excel in describing other people’s implicit assumptions, but they are

as implicit as anyone else when it comes to their own.