Revisiting Feminist Ethnography: Methods and Activism at the Intersection of Neoliberal Policy

In the wake of neoliberalism, where human rights and social justice have increasingly been subordinated to proliferating "consumer choices" and ideals of market justice, this article suggests that feminist ethnographers are in an important position to reassert the central feminist connections among theory, method, and practice. It draws on experiences of feminist anthropologists studying battered women and midwifery advocates to consider the role of feminist ethnography within the context of neoliberalism. It suggests avenues for incorporating methodological innovations, collaborative analysis, and feminist writing objectives and activism in scholarly projects. What does feminist ethnography look like in a historical moment characterized by increasingly diverse delineations of neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism? What are the possibilities (and challenges) that exist for feminist ethnography twenty years after initial debates emerged in this field about reflexivity, objectivity, reductive individualism, and the social relevance of activist scholarship? This article generates a contextualized dialogue about the possibilities for feminist ethnography in the twenty-first century—at the intersection of engaged feminist research and activism in the service of the organizations, people, communities, and feminist issues studied.