Positionality

"Positionality is the notion that personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world. In this context, gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities are indicators of social and spatial positions and are not fixed, given qualities. Positions act on the knowledge a person has about things, both material and abstract. Consequently, knowledge is the product of a specific position that reflects particular places and spaces.”

-Luis Sánchez,
Positionality (entry in Encyclopedia of Geography)

Plainclothesman and Residents: Watts, Sabra Field

"Whether the researcher is an insider, sharing the characteristic, role, or experience under study with the participants, or an outsider to the commonality shared by participants, the personhood of the researcher, including her or his membership status in relation to those participating in the research, is an essential and ever-present aspect of the investigation."

- Sonya Corbin Dwyer and Jennifer L. Buckle,
"The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research"

"social identity, which consists of one's group memberships and the emotional attachment one has for these group memberships, is largely derived through social comparison. The meaning of one's group - its value, its significance, and so on - is largely based on what other groups are present in the environment. When different values are attached to different group memberships, people have to do psychological work to come to terms with their social identities."

- Aída Hurtado and Patricia Gurin,
Chicana/o Identity in a Changing U.S. Society