Uncertainty and Positionality of the Researcher Sample Clauses

Uncertainty and Positionality of the Researcher. In this final section, I reflect on the uncertainty in locating the subjectivities which appeared in the process of changing the dissertation’s focus and working in the fieldwork situation. This is similar to an unpacking process to reconsider the positionalities of placing self and the other in the process of studying and representing a ‘local’ issue in a ‘foreign’ setting. Throughout the reflection, I consider that, rather than asking who is self and who is the other, in the era of academic globalisation, the question perhaps can be changed into when is self and when is the other. While contemplating the dilemmas I experienced, it is not my intention to fall into the rhetoric of self-indulgence or disciplinary insecurity. Rather, it is an attempt to recognise an open and relational self, sense of politics, and the labour of emotion involved in this research project. Since the discussion is a process of reflection on the inter-subjectivities of the researched, the researcher, and the researching environment, I quickly note that I was born in 1986 and raised in Taipei. I received my bachelor’s degree in sociology in Taiwan before moving to the Netherlands for my graduate school study in 2010, and I have lived there since then. I was raised by a Christian family yet became largely agnostic after my undergraduate study.