Positionality

by Xenia Dela Cueva

The online dictionary defines positionality as “where one is located in relation to their various social identities like gender, race, class, or ethnicity”  (Positionality statement. Centre for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.)). Our identities are composed of different micro identities that often intersect with one another. Positionality combines your placement within these identities with the relationships you make and maintain in them.  Because of this, positionality is the middle ground between objectivism and subjectivism, between structure (social position) and agency (meaning and practice) (Anthias, 2002). To better define positionality, it is important to distinguish it from position. Philosopher Linda  Alcoff creates the distinction between position and positionality, in which positionality better encompasses the subjective experience of a person rather than the objective “position”. Positionality connotes more to a person’s identity relational to a context (as Alcoff uses it in gender and feminism), while position only defines the person’s identity from an outer or third party standpoint.

Positionality is an incredibly loaded term. We can't simply label our identities; we might not even understand them. Human beings are too complex and constantly evolving to be objectified, let alone fully grasp the subjectivity of our experiences. Positionality can be better understood in the ways it is used. In academia, researchers often refer to positionality to define the power dynamics they feel when they do ethnographic research or fieldwork. Johnson-Bailey and Merriam better define the multiplicity of “positionality” using an analogy of “insider” and “outsider.” As a preface, researchers are often faced with the awkwardness or the feelings of exclusion when conducting social research in unfamiliar communities. They don’t relate to their interviewees on several aspects like  education, gender, sexual orientation, class, race (Merriam and Johnson-Bailey, 2001).  Using the “insider/outsider” analogy, an interviewee might feel more comfortable with a researcher if they find some commonality to like in similar races and gender, thus making the researcher feel more like an insider when the interviewee answers questions. However, at the same time, the researcher can feel like an outsider due to differences in education, where the same interviewee can respond differently about their day to day jobs or lives. A researcher's positionality both enables and limits their sense of relation with people within various communities that contribute to their identity.

As a student, multiple axes shape my positionality, thereby influencing my college experience, relationships, and perspectives. This includes, but is not limited to, academic studies, college activities, and especially personal backgrounds. The impact of our positionality on our perception becomes apparent through the distinct reactions of individuals with diverse social backgrounds when faced with the same situation (Simandan, 2019). Each person has a unique set of values and positionality affects how a situation is perceived and encountered, deviating from the world itself. Positionality contextualizes what shapes our views on experiences in the world and our relations to others. 

However, while positionality can provide insight to the different environments identity includes, it is also very easy to constrain oneself and one's personhood because of positionality. Positionality is intertwined with the concept of 'in relation to,' and this subjective comparison can be harmful when defining your own positionality based on whom you are connecting to. The feeling of not “being” because of preconceived notions of who can be has shown people to subconsciously exclude themselves from identities they are actually part of. An example of this is when immigrants in the United States were interviewed to understand feelings of inclusion and exclusion. Respondents were both people who immigrated to the United States, as well as their children who were born in the United States. Both groups answered in similar manners when asked “What does it mean to be a good US Citizen”, but responses deviated once asked “What does it mean to be American.” While respondents were able to fit themselves within citizenship, being “American” can become exclusionary since respondents talked about cultural and racial fits (Bloemraad, 2022). Given a specific context or even location, we can easily put ourselves in boxes or rigid categories.

Sociologist Floya Anthias introduces another form of “positionality” called “translocational positionality” where she uses this to make a claim on how people identify themselves. Anthias refers to positionality as the multilayers of characteristics that make up a person, but translocation further specifies positionality in where a person is and how they relate themselves to their environment. Location affects positionality within a community or collective identity. Anthias interviews Greek Cypriots in Britain and uses “translocational positionality” to describe their responses on identifying themselves largely on differentiation rather than commonality. This subgroup acknowledged that they aren’t historically from Britain, but also made clear distinctions from other ethnicities, creating a hierarchical categorization for the “British” identity. Positionality often increases the ambiguity of feeling inclusion when specifically bounding it to location.

As a college student, this can be very easy to do: excluding yourself from opportunities to connect with others from a preconceived notion of what your positionality is given the context and location of your school. My initial idea of what my positionality was as a student was similar to these US immigrant and Cypriot interviewees in the research projects. I am a Filipino American coming from Los Angeles. I grew up in a city that was incredibly diverse and cultural, where I was surrounded by other Filipinos like myself, as well as other minority ethnic groups. I initially contemplated what my positionality was at Dartmouth, recognizing that I was used to a culture of immigrants, but had shifted to being one of the few Filipinos on campus. With my preconceived notions about college in the Northeast, I felt excluded from various communities. Because of labeling my positionality within Dartmouth as an outsider, I consequently distanced myself from truly connecting with other students based on my assumptions of who fit the cultural mold at Dartmouth.

Simultaneously, my positionality in relation to my peers back home also changed: I felt a sense of exclusion. I wasn't home for most of the year, where I missed gatherings and other intimate events with family and my extended community. Interpersonal dynamics had changed as I couldn’t relate to the car traffic Angelinos faced daily, the relationships they’ve made with other locals that I haven’t, or the shared experiences they’ve had when I physically was gone. I was also met with surprise when I shared my own college experiences, like living through winters and being unable to eat Filipino or other ethnic cuisines daily. Given my positionality regarding my closest friends and family,  I created this notion that my identity was someone who “left home”. This made me feel as though I was no longer part of it.

These effects of exclusion led to me being more introverted, as I became more quiet and reserved to who I spoke to both in college and in California. However, there’s also a difference between positionality and personality. Your own understanding of your positionality within a context can also affect your personality, or your interactions with others. Discussions of positionality among researchers also reveal that personality is often overlooked, and studying personality can enable progress towards challenges in research methodologies and fieldwork (Moser, 2008). Uncomfortable interactions and dynamics between people cannot simply be blamed by one’s positionality. In the case for researchers within fieldwork research, positionality frequently creates a highly selective version of oneself that aims to maintain academic authority (Moser, 2008). In practical applications for everyday life, being constantly aware of your presumed positionality within a space can swing you to extremes of either being in or out, without acknowledging the possibility of a middle ground or gray area. As identities span in different domains, they can overlap. Concurrently, positionalities in different domains don’t have to be so rigid, but can create crossroads.

Instead of viewing positionality to be a constraint of where you can fit in, it can be used to create new spaces. This reframed perspective on positionality can be beneficial for minorities and other marginalized groups. We have been wired to think rigidly of being included or excluded as colonialism has been built on dichotomies of space, like home/nation, public/private. This not only affects the individual daily, but these metaphorical boundaries have affected communities and what it means to be part of one (Goeman, 2008, pg. 296). As Linda Tuhiwai Smith- a professor specializing in Indigenous education- points out, spaces from intersections, whether its ideas, issues, or struggles offer possibilities for people to resist. Overlapping spaces shouldn’t just be seen as an intersection of where identity and ideas meet. Creating space within these areas has become a hallmark of many Maori efforts in New Zealand for education, health, research, and social justice. Unlike the concept of struggles 'in the margins,' this notion, when linked to the political idea of rangatiratanga— or self-determination—implies that all space in New Zealand can be viewed as Maori space (Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, 2012, pg. 202). On the individual level, this reimagined perspective on intersectionality can enable a fluid positionality among different domains: one that is not catered to the context, but to the person. By recognizing that you are the intersection between bordered ideas of cultures and communities, it creates the potential to connect these separate spaces together.

One of the ways this form of positionality is utilized by Caribbean American professor Nigel O.M. Brissett. His understanding of his place within the academic space initially hindered his teaching methods. Brissett's characterization of himself inhibited him from connecting his background with his curriculum and with his students in meaningful ways. Ultimately, Brissett leverages his Carribean upbringing to the classroom, and encourages students to look at their own positionality in learning, as well as sharing personal stories that resonate with others. One’s positionality can foster broader understanding on a more intimate level and even promote social change (Brissett, 2020). This approach aims to make personal experiences significant and cultural experiences engaging, and in his case, to benefit students and educators in international education and development. By understanding one’s self to the malleability of identity, one plays an active role in shaping the context that defines themself (Alcoff, 1988). Once more, positionality carries significant weight. Yet, engaging with it to your own space grants you agency instead of resigning to a pre-established role.

As a graduating student, I’ve perceived my own positionality in a different light as I recognize myself in the context of both Dartmouth and a person back home. One of the ways in which I interact with my positionality differently is understanding the privileges it has granted me from both spaces. While my college experience differed compared to friends and family because of geographical location, I’ve had the privilege of experiencing something entirely new as well as growing from it. As a student, I’ve had the privilege to study groups of people that truly matter to me, whether they are part of inner city Los Angeles or coastal communities in the Philippines. These experiences have been unique to me and have enabled me to create spaces both in the academic and personal settings.

Lastly, I have the privilege to expand what my community encompasses. I’ve often felt homesick and have often contemplated transferring to a place closer to home and to a community I’m so comfortable with. However, one thing that I’ve always kept with me was when my mom said, “When you’re there, I hope you know that you represent not just us (family), but an entire region back home (the Philippines). No one’s done what you’re doing.” In this way, communities are recreated through symbolic relationships and obligations rather than bounds through nation-state models of border and citizenship (Goeman, 2008, pg. 299). Oftentimes immigrant, Filipino, and even Southeast Asian experiences are underrepresented in institutions like Dartmouth. Although there needs to be work in also increasing the number of students from these backgrounds, being a student enables me to bring these forms of identity into the Dartmouth community. In this sense, it’s better than having no form of inclusion at all. Instead of viewing this as an unwanted obligation to my community, it's a privilege to do so. Continuing to acknowledge your relationships with your community, despite being physically apart, can help dismantle the dichotomy that constrains the concept of community in the first place. Subsequently, positionality is not a hindrance to how you fit in, but a potential for notions of what your identity is. It is from this understanding of positionality and making the most of convergences in identity that can enable room for inclusivity and confidence within forms of community.

References

1. Alcoff, L. (1988). Cultural feminism versus post-structuralism: The identity crisis in feminist theory. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 13(3), 405-436.

2. Anthias, F. (2002). Where do I belong? Narrating collective identity and translocational positionality. Ethnicities,2(4), 491-514.         

3. Bloemraad, I. (2022). Claiming membership: boundaries, positionality, US citizenship, and what it means to be American. In Permitted Outsiders (pp. 23-45). Routledge.

4. Brissett, N. O. (2020). Teaching like a subaltern: Postcoloniality, positionality, and pedagogy in international development and education. Comparative Education Review, 64(4), 577-597.

5. Goeman, M. (2008). (Re) Mapping Indigenous presence on the land in Native women's literature. American Quarterly, 60(2), 295-302.

6. Merriam, S. B., Johnson-Bailey, J., Lee, M. Y., Kee, Y., Ntseane, G., & Muhamad, M. (2001). Power and positionality: Negotiating insider/outsider status within and across cultures. International journal of lifelong education, 20(5), 405-416.

7. Moser, S. (2008). Personality: a new positionality?. Area, 40(3), 383-392. 

8. Positionality statement. Centre for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). https://www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/equity-diversity-inclusivity/positionality-statement#:~:text=Positionality%20refers%20to%20where%20one,including%20our%20knowledges%2C%20perspectives%2C%20and)

9. Simandan, D. (2019). Revisiting positionality and the thesis of situated knowledge. Dialogues in human geography, 9(2), 129-149.     

10. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies : Research and Indigenous Peoples, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dartmouth-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1426837.