Methods, Gender and Hope: A Blueprint for Social Science

Complexity and difficulty characterize contemporary gender relations, where a contradictory set of discourses, which we identify as ‘postfeminist’, interpret sexism, self-discipline and oppression as forms of empowerment. Over several projects defined by a transdiscipinarity that crosses between and above psychology and media studies, we have organically developed a methodological approach for interrogating this complexity. In this paper, we outline this approach, giving it form and transparency. We start from a Foucauldian-poststructuralist perspective, which we continue to find useful for analyzing meaning making in its wider power relations. But our methodology also draws on Lather’s concept of ‘getting lost’, and an empirical-Deleuzian concept of the assemblage, which also focuses attention on capacities for action. These frameworks free our research to follow threads, interruptions and emerging ‘lines of flight’. The outcome is a critical analysis that enables hope in troubled times.