AUTHOR COPY Original Article Researching the Researched: Gender, Reflexivity and Actor-Orientation in an Experimental Game Cecile Jackson School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK. E-mail: Cecile.Jackson@uae.ac.uk Abstract It is rare for researchers doing fieldwork to revisit the subjects of their research to discuss their understandings and experience of the research process, but such work, which reveals the perceptions of respondents, their intentions and the meanings inherent in testimonies and observed actions, offers important insights for both the analysis of particular research projects and for wider epistemological and methodological debates. This article analyses material from interviews con- ducted after an experimental game, involving resource allocation within marriage, and played with couples in Eastern Uganda. It argues for more reflexive and actor-oriented methodologies and for multi-methods that combine observation with talk. Il est rare que les chercheurs faisant du travail de terrain retournent discuter du processus de recherche avec ceux qui y participe`rent, mais quand cela se fait, des perspectives importantes, tant au niveau me´thodologique qu’e´piste´mologique, peuvent s’en de´gager. Il est en particulier tre`s inte´r- essant d’essayer de comprendre la perception de ceux qui participent en tant que sujets a` un processus de recherche, par exemple par rapport a` leur motivation ou bien a` la signification qu’ils attribuent a` leur participation. Cet article analyse le re´sultat d’entretiens conduits a posteriori avec les participants d’un jeu expe´rimental concernant la distribution des ressources au sein de couples marie´s en Ouganda oriental. Il appelle a` l’adoption de me´thodologies plus re´fle´chies et oriente´es vers l’acteur, ainsi que de me´thodes plurielles combinant l’observation avec des entretiens. European Journal of Development Research (2009) 21, 772–791. doi:10.1057/ejdr.2009.33; published online 23 July 2009 Keywords: intra-household relations; gender; experimental games; actor-orientation; reflexivity; Uganda Introduction It is unusual for researchers to conduct studies, after they have completed their work, aimed at getting a better understanding of the respondents ‘take’ on the research: what they thought it was about, and their explanations of their responses. Yet this is very revealing, and offers lessons both for the particular project and for research methods in general. This article is primarily about methods, and understanding how participants in an experimental game engaged with the encounter, and how the meanings and intentions of players im- pinged on the data produced in the games. Methods cannot, of course, be considered out of the context of the research questions and settings they are employed in, and some dis- cussion of this is included here, but space limitations make this frustratingly brief. 1 What drove this research was an interest in the social relations of gender within do- mestic groups, which mediate access to resources, achievement of capabilities and func- tionings, and degrees of freedom and equity. The research questions posed by the project r 2009 European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes 0957-8811 European Journal of Development Research Vol. 21, 5, 772–791 www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/