Insider and Outsider Research: Negotiating Self at the Edge of the Emic/Etic Divide

Abstract

Qualitative research is a process of storytelling, but whose story are we telling and from what perspective? We examine Kenneth Pike’s work on emic and etic approaches to qualitative inquiry and explore how, over time, etic has come to refer to settler-colonial research while emic is seen as relating to Othered life-worlds outside academia. Researchers from marginalized communities often struggle to occupy the etic space of the academy and the emic space of their research. Using concepts of edgewalking and edgework, we argue that another space is available at the edge between emic and etic where transformative research can occur.

Keywords

emic and etic edgework edgewalking qualitative research methods academic margins

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