The challenges of ‘researching with responsibility’: Developing intersectional reflexivity for understanding surfing, place and community in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Located within feminist scholarship on sport, leisure and physical cultures, this article explores our attempts to understand what conducting ‘research with responsibility’ means as White, settler-coloniser, immigrant women researching surfing, place and community in Aotearoa New Zealand. Taking inspiration from Hamilton’s ‘intersectional reflexivity’ and Māori feminist scholars’ discussion of (de)colonizing methodologies, we discuss the development of our intersectional, collaborative methodology to understand our relationships to place, community and surfing. This co-ethnographic approach helped us navigate the ethics and challenges of knowledge production in Aotearoa New Zealand, and enabled us to be aware of, and open to, different worldviews and ways of knowing. We argue this methodology has value in developing better recognition of our own privileges; understanding of the intersectional politics-of-place we are part of as researchers, and as community members; and of the assumptions, motivations and values that inform our research practices.