ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 offers a transparent account of the Mumsnet study that is reported in this book, emphasizing its qualitative and poststructuralist foundations. It provides a clear explication of the methods that are employed in this research, and thus offers a significant methodological contribution to the field of discourse studies. To this end, it explains in detail how discourses of gender and parenthood have been identified and analysed in Mumsnet Talk interactions. It also includes practical details about data construction, a process of discovery which involves in-depth engagement with Mumsnet Talk and the construction of Talk threads as data for the purposes of this study. Finally, the chapter provides a frank account of the author’s situation as both researcher and mother, detailing the ways in which a self-reflexive, open and flexible approach led to her self-positioning as an ‘observer-participant’ – as both insider and outsider in the Mumsnet community. The chapter concludes by showing how this self-reflexive stance affected the author’s consideration of ethical concerns, and promoting a case-based, context-sensitive approach to Internet research design.
