Other Sides of the Coin. A Feminist Perspective on Robustness in Science and Knowledge Production

Driving forces behind the occurrence of either paradigm shifts in science, or the development of new orientations within science, are often linked to demands for an increased validity or reliability in knowledge production in science. With this as a starting point, I discuss parallels and diversities between gender and feminist research and interactive research orientations. Both traditions have a joint democratic ambition, as well as an aim to increase reliability of science. Reliability will be discussed as “social robustness” (Novotny et al. 2001). Focus will be on contributions from gender and feminist research that can lead to a joint qualifying process for both research traditions. Starting from a general discussion using “reflexive gender reminders”, to frame knowledge production, I then discuss dilemmas of robustness in interactive research processes, and researcher and participant subjectivity.