Methods and Materials on Marginal Workers' Experiences

This article explores the conduct of research on the cultural construction of craftswomen's work and self-employment, drawing on characteristics of feminist geographies and gender development methodology in a third world perspective. It discusses how the fieldwork has become an increasingly contested terrain and ambiguously problematised in feminist studies. It explores and describes the methodological and interpretive issues raised by a feminist narrative perspective when attempting to develop knowledge about the relations of power, women's perceptions, beliefs, and attitude concerning cultural constructions of female work and self-employment. Reflecting gendered spaces, the author has situated women workers' knowledge and specific type of consciousness valuable to them, while exploring intersections of narratives, gendered spaces and self-employment.