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Paper short abstract:

The paper explores positionality as a Southern scholar in Northern participatory institutions, addressing socio-spatial constraints and epistemic possibilities. Using a 'negotiated spaces' lens, it reflects on shifting positionings, intersectional challenges, and methods to reveal counter-narratives

Paper long abstract:

In autumn 2023, I entered the first national citizens’ assembly hosted by the German parliament as part of my ethnographic research. Navigating access protocols and embodying an in-between research role as a Southern scholar in a Northern institutional space involved moments of disorientation and negotiation. This paper reflects on the relational processes shaping my research positionings, highlighting socio-spatial constraints and epistemic possibilities.

Building on a ‘negotiated spaces’ theoretical framing developed during my research, I explore three interconnected dimensions—material, embodied, and epistemic—drawing from a fieldwork sketchbook and a ‘social identity map.’ Inspired by Martina Löw’s relational concept of space, Patricia Hill Collins’ intersectional experiencing, and Sarah Ahmed’s disorientation, this multidimensional lens examines three acts of negotiation.

The first, “Self-positioning in-between,” highlights the ambiguity of insider-outsider dynamics while adapting institutional spaces to conduct research. The second, “Sensitizing differences,” unpacks the challenges of fostering intersectional analyses in relation to GDPR-based restrictions on sensitive data and hierarchical institutional norms. Finally, “Speaking beyond words” illustrates how a visual grounded theory approach captured gestures and silences, fostering counter-narratives that challenged normative inclusion.

By addressing asymmetries and opacities in participatory processes, this paper contributes to development studies by critically reflecting on conventional expectations placed on Southern scholars, offering pathways to navigate dominant systems.