Methodological Innovations Online (2013) 8(1) 13-26 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Correspondence: J.Harvey, Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA. E-mail:jonathan.harvey@open.ac.uk ISSN: 1748-0612online DOI: 10.4256/mio.2013.0002 Footprints in the field: researcher identity in social research Jonathan Harvey The Open University Milton Keynes Abstract This paper encourages researchers to consider their own identity to be of particular importance within any research project. Rather than seeing our own identities as being fully formed and therefore detached from a project, this paper suggests that we invest ourselves into research and acknowledge the impact we have on research. Investing ourselves into research, also involves considering our identities to be open to adaption. Consequently, an investigation of how our own identities can be influenced by the process of carrying out research is also discussed. It is suggested that this investment may open up endless possibilities for future research and practice. Notably, the process of self-investigation can result in transparent and ethical knowledge production. I use the example of my own research to highlight the advantages of remaining open to and embracing these opportunities for growth. Drawing on a poststructural conceptual framework, I critically explore some of the possibilities that a thorough interrogation of the self can create. Keywords: Method/ology, Reflexivity, Feminism, Disability, Intersections. Introduction Within this paper I seek to describe some of the ways that the identity of a researcher has an important impact on any given research project. Moreover, I argue that the identity of the researcher is also influenced by the process of carrying out research. These assertions lend support to a view that identity is a free-flowing and malleable construct which is always ready to become nomadic and foreign in order to concord with the diversity of the social world. Drawing on a poststructuralist framework, I will describe how research can benefit from a thorough investigation of the identity of the researcher(s). I use my sociological imagination to tease out some of the insights I have gained from my on-going doctoral research. My research uses the analytical technique of thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) to analyse data gleaned from a number of methods and approaches within the qualitative paradigm. I use this data to investigate the identities of seven men aged between 25 and 35 years who sustained an acquired brain injury (ABI) during young adulthood. Roughly 10 years ago, I sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury (a form of ABI). Throughout my research I have included my own thoughts and experiences to complement those of my fellow participants. In sharing this facet of identity with participants’, I feel that a thorough examination of both the impact I have had on the research, and the research has had on me to be particularly relevant. Initially I felt that I was ideally placed as an ‘insider’ to explore the lives and experiences of others who had sustained similar injuries. However, upon further reflection, I believe it has been crucial that I did not allow this similarity to provide me with a (false) sense of familiarity with my participants’ complex, unique and ever-changing lifeworlds. Furthermore, I am