‘Representing’ the voices of Fijian women rugby players: Working with power differentials in transformative research

Abstract

The politics of research practice has been discussed extensively in ethnographic and methodological literature, and increasingly in sport research literature. In this article we intend to contribute to the growing body of transformative research in the sociology of sport with reflections on our experience as dominant group researchers in a post-colonial, sub-cultural sporting environment; women’s rugby union in Fiji. We first examine the dilemmas and uncertainties engendered by our gendered/sexual positionalities and how we have sought to negotiate them. We also place our research in the context of Pacific islanders’ continuous effort for knowledge decolonisation and examine the ways in which our research replicates colonial silencing of local voices, however inadvertently. Finally, we explore the broader transformative potentials researchers may contribute to by situating their work as a collective and dialogic project within and beyond academic exercises, between researchers, athletes and others.