THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE - EXAMINING THE QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE DUALISM IN POSTSTRUCTURALIST FEMINIST RESEARCH

The potential for using quantitative techniques in feminist post-structuralist research has been obscured by the pervasiveness of the quantitative/qualitative dualism within the discipline. In this paper I discuss the possibility that quantitative approaches may be uncoupled from masculinist versions of science in ways that are consistent with the goals of feminist post-structuralist research. To illustrate these ideas, I explore the politics of counting-both the political power of statistical representations of oppression and also the role of counting in revealing the operation of power relations. My examinations of the persistence of the quantitative/qualitative dualism-despite the potential power of quantitative approaches in feminist work-raise questions about how our academic biographies reinforce these ontological divisions. Specifically, I raise questions about the influence of our academic socialization on our engagement with the particular ontologies we employ and (perhaps) reject.