By Rebecca Laycock Pedersen and Varvara Nikulina
2. Varvara Nikulina (biography)
How can researchers express their positionality? What does positionality mean?
In working at the interface of science and society, researchers play many different roles, even within a single project, as, for example:
- bridge builders (as described by Rod Lawrence in his blog post),
- policy advisers (as described by Karin Ingold), and
- activists (as described by Dorothy Broom).
As researchers, our role within a project is a part of our ‘positionality,’ or our social position. Positionality as defined by Agar (1996) is whether one sees oneself as an outsider, a ‘neutral’ investigator, or something else.