Maha Bali مها باليWhat's the key difference betw navel-gazing and introspection or self-reflection? Cc @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @fgraver @friedelitis
Professorsv@mahabali @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @fgraver @friedelitis Good question! For me, it is what you do with it. If your intent is to grow or understand something or it leads to a new insight that changes your perspective, then it is self-reflection. But if it becomes circular and elf involved, then I would call it navel gazing-- I wouldn't lump introspection in with navel-gazing though. But then what do I know, lol!
@mahabali @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @fgraver @friedelitis too much Santa apparently,-- self-involved, not elf involved....
Fredrik Graver 🎥🥌@mahabali Heavy question for a holiday weekend! :)
For me, the key difference is in the word reflection. I would consider navel-gazing to be an absorption in the self, intentional or not, without context or reflection. Introspection would include some element of contextualization and may then lead to self-reflection which, as @Professorsv points out, may lead to change and growth.
@katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @friedelitis
Econproph@fgraver @mahabali @Professorsv @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @friedelitis I'm with Fredrik on this. Navel gazing is pondering the self in isolation - self as the universe or at least center thereof. Introspection/self-reflection looks at self in context of rest of world. Intro considers how how world affects me & I deal with it. Navel gazing doesn't know there's a world.
Christina Hendricks@econproph @fgraver @mahabali @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @friedelitis This sounds right on. I also like @Professorsv 's point that it matters what you do with it. I think of self-reflection as done in order to learn, to improve, to be a better person in the world & with others.
@clhendricksbc @friedelitis @katebowles @cogdog @econproph @lauraritchie @fgraver @Professorsv thank u everyone for these insightful responses! I will keep all that in mind when i see ppl accuse self-reflective ppl/research of navel-gazing ;)
I hadn't actually thought of the difference between self-reflection and introspection - so thanks for adding that in!
Btw, I asked this q on Twitter first then had a hunch i would get a better response here so re-posted and tagged active tooters. Worked '
@mahabali @clhendricksbc @friedelitis @katebowles @cogdog @econproph @lauraritchie @fgraver I would have answered there, but I didn't see it. Here my timeline is fairly truncated, so I am more likely to see it. Twitter is more crowded.
rob@mahabali @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @fgraver @friedelitis navel gazing never progresses.
Alan Levine@robparsons @friedelitis @katebowles @mahabali @lauraritchie @fgraver @clhendricksbc
Navel gazing is the only way to find out if you have trapped lint there (someone has to take the other side).
Laura Ritchie 🌸@cogdog @friedelitis @katebowles @mahabali @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons haha ;) I had psychology person (Liora Bressler) say to me once that all research is also 'me-search'. Also has to do with going from the known to the unknown - can't really jump without connection, so for me self- or any other sort of reflection is central to everything - whether listening, writing, watching...
Kate@lauraritchie @cogdog @friedelitis @mahabali @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons Indigenous researchers emphasise that practice is always relational: who am I, that I am not you? How are we connected? How did we each come to this point, through lines of kin and relationships to place?
For non-Indigenous researchers this is a reminder that we each came to this point where the world looks obvious to us, and that's how our lenses were shaped.
Reflexivity is core to this.
2c
@friedelitis @mahabali @cogdog @lauraritchie @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons
So for me there's a colonialist logic to the dismissal of reflection as navel gazing. Reflection on self and practice can't detour around questions of power, and these are awkward questions for power itself.
So there's an effort to trivialise and dismiss reflection, that's worth keeping an eye on.
Hope this helps, Maha. Why did you ask?
@katebowles @friedelitis @mahabali @cogdog @lauraritchie @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons This is an interesting point. There is fully a negative connotation to navel-gazing; it is a kin to wasting time, being unproductive. It can be used to shame someone or undermine--as @katebowles says, to trivialize and dismiss reflection. Why did you ask @mahabali?
I cannot remember now why I asked re navel-gazing but I do think what you both said re negative connotation and colonialist assumptions are what I was trying to get at
And that positionality of researcher and her self-reflection are essential to any research also... But that I felt the term navel-gazing was more of an attempt to dismiss self-reflective/reflexive research as less valuable...
@Professorsv @friedelitis @katebowles @cogdog @lauraritchie @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons
Tanya **moved**@katebowles @friedelitis @mahabali @cogdog @lauraritchie @fgraver @clhendricksbc @robparsons To me, self-reflection is trying to understand how what I see might look through the eyes of others & how seeing it through their eyes might change my actions.