Assessing, Engaging, and Enacting Worlds: Tensions in Feminist Method/ologies

Our methods, methodologies, and ways of producing and communicating knowledge not only orient the questions we ask and the knowledges we pursue, but they also direct the effects and purposes of our work. Methods enact our worlds (Law and Urry 2004Law, J., and J. Urry. 2004. “Enacting the Social.” Economy and Society 33 (3): 390–410. doi:10.1080/0308514042000225716 [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ). While many feminist International Relations scholars would agree with this, there are considerable differences in the method/ologies we use, the ways in which we communicate, and what we understand method/ology to mean. These differences were at the heart of the Fifth Annual Critical Voices in Swiss IR Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, titled “Feminism, Difference, and Beyond” and organized by a group of scholars known as the Swiss International Relations Collective (SWIRCO). The conference included keynote addresses by Wendy Harcourt, L. H. M. Ling, and Marysia Zalewski. The conversation here represents further engagement with a number of issues that emerged at the conference as a result of these keynotes.