Abstract
This chapter explores the production of work knowledge, through an account of a research journey from institutional capture to discovery. The chapter is based on a study I conducted of epistemic inequalities in Finnish gender studies, from the standpoint of feminist academics. My initial plan for the research project was to focus on how experiences of epistemic exclusion where organized by the Finnish neoliberal higher education reforms and hegemonic feminist epistemic orientations. However, I learned that my interests in epistemic exclusion and hegemonies blocked me from seeing people’s actual activities and challenges. Rather this focus, I realized, directed me toward confirming existing theory. The particular analysis I was able to produce, in the end, was only possible through a focus on the work of producing gender studies—that allowed me to take seriously the complexities and contradictions of people’s experiences, and their socially organized possibilities for participation.
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