Reflexive turn

From Geography

Definition

The reflexive turn is a modern movement in cultural anthropology that emerged in the early seventies. Reflexive turn was founded out of the criticism on colonialism and the growing awareness of feminist anthropologists about how a person can affect the ethnographies they write. Mostly the combination between the criticism on inequalities of colonialism and the the inequality in research, what was mostly man-centered.

Post-modern and relfexive turn

Reflexive turn showed many similarities with post-modernism. The main question that was asked was íf it was possible to create an objective study of a culture when the researchers own culture was inherently involved.' When enlighting the feminist way of viewing this, the difference between the type of knowledge gathered, soon occured. A male researcher would have acces to other parts of a culture then a female researcher.

But the main focus of reflexive turn was to visualize and tell of the researchers integration and interaction within a community/culture they were studying. There will not only be an image of the other culture but mostly the researchers influence and view on this subject.