ABSTRACT
Given the somewhat limited feminist theorisations on methodology yielded by my literature review (Chapter 6), the objective of this chapter is to consider women-related (WR) researchers’ / writers’ unrecorded, understandings (savoir) of feminist theory onmethodology (connaissances) – principally through interviews. This research act signifies a somewhat convoluted relationship between savoir and connaissances. I will ‘begin’ to ‘make’ theory and ‘unmake’ theory (connaissances) here primarily from consultations with WR researchers in Sri Lanka. To do so I will pose the following questions. How do WR researchers predominantly perceive of themselves as researchers? What are the key assumptions that they bring to the act of researching? How can these perceptions and assumptions be theorised? I will examine / compose how researchers conceptualise the researcher (and research processes), and reflect on how I myself make and unmake theoretical meaning. To what extent can I extract theoretical meanings from researchers’ interviews on research methodology? To what extent can I apply theoretical frameworks from international research methodology to data from interviews? In what ways can I make and unmake meaning in theory?1
