Doing feminist longitudinal research across the COVID-19 crisis: Unheard impacts on researchers and garment workers in Cambodia

Abstract

This paper is based on the ReFashion study which used mixed-method longitudinal research to track and amplify the experiences and coping mechanisms of 200 women garment workers in Cambodia as they navigated the financial repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. It develops the idea and practice of ‘feminist longitudinal research’ (FLR) through re-centring the too often marginalised knowledges and ways of knowing of Cambodian researchers and research participants. Hearing and learning from their experiences reveal the labours and care-work involved in the ‘doing’ of longitudinal research during a time of extraordinary crisis, and the potential for feminist consciousness raising and solidarity that can arise both within and beyond the confines of an academic study. The paper advocates for geographers and other social scientists to go beyond technically-framed issues of participant ‘attrition’ and ‘retention’ in longitudinal studies to think more creatively and critically about the process of longitudinal research and what it means for those taking part in it. FLR not only evidences the temporally contingent gendered impacts of a phenomenon, but can be distinguished by its intentionality and/or potential to challenge the patriarchal status quo, both in the lives of researchers and participants.