ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will compare the views of reflexivity and the situated character of knowledge in On the Beginning of Social Inquiry and in some feminist perspectives. One of my aims is to draw out what I see as similarities between the two, which both offer insightful views about reflexivity and its role in social scientific inquiry. These similarities are intriguing insofar as they arose despite the apparent absence of an interchange of ideas between feminist thinkers and the authors of On the Beginning of Social Inquiry. A second aim of the piece is to analyse how these similarities might have come about. The third task of the piece is to critically probe the presuppositions of both approaches, particularly in relation to how successfully they break from the assumptions of approaches that they are rejecting. And the final concern will be to consider whether each approach has ideas that can help take the other’s project forward.
