Situating Knowledges

How personal contexts and experiences shape the formation of knowledge

Situated knowledge is a theory of knowledge in which the formation of knowledge itself is embedded within a temporal, historical, cultural, and epistemological framework. Originally proposed by feminist, new materialist, and postmodern scholar Donna Haraway, the concept is intended to prove that universal knowledge is not a possible form of knowledge. Specifically, Haraway’s theory speaks against a situation in Western science and technological fields that generate knowledge from their work in the pursuit of “objectivity.” But of course, “objectivity,” as employed by those communities primarily constituted of patriarchal, racist, militarized, industrialized workers, is formed through this particular lens constructed by this context and worldview (1988; 581). The pursuit, or fabrication, of objectivity makes invisible power dynamics that result from an assumed relativism in science. These informed worldviews - temporal, historical, cultural, and epistemological – are inextricably entangled in a heaping mess of knowing simultaneously occurring to inform a subjectivity and sense of self. To address this issue, Haraway proposes a doctrine of “Feminist objectivity” which simply means situated knowledges (1988; 581).