The continuum of complicity: “Studying up”/studying power as a feminist, anti-racist, or social justice venture

Synopsis“Studying up” has a long tradition in the social sciences, especially in critical scholarship. Critical methodologies, however, do not fit well with studying up. Responding to a history of disadvantaged groups' exploitation by scholars, critical researchers – especially feminists – developed alternative methodologies involving shared authorship, honest and open exchange, or “giving voice” to those you study. None of these practices are appropriate when studying the powerful, leaving critical scholars who do this work in a challenging position. We use our ethnographic studies of a jail and an anti-crime organization to explore this challenge. We identify incidents researchers are likely to encounter in this work, examine how we handled them, and use our experiences to develop a continuum of complicity that can be utilized by researchers to evaluate their decision-making processes relevant to research subjects' (and their own) exercise of power over marginalized others. The continuum is a tool that can be utilized to address the professional strain and identity crises that gaps in the methodological literature can produce for feminist, anti-racist, and social justice-oriented researchers who study power. It is also useful for mapping power as it unfolds in the field.

•Examines tension between “studying up”/studying power and critical methodologies•We explore these tensions in practice via two separate ethnographic projects.•Situates complicity on a continuum, allowing for careful analysis of power dynamics