Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
Gold
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Share the love for this talk
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
Speakers: Victor Udoewa
Link:

Summary

Most efforts at advancing research to be more inclusive focus on methods or methodologies or participation. Though helpful, those efforts have unfortunately not been sufficient for inclusion and we continue to be constrained by stronger forces which go to the root of what research means and the definition of inclusion. To be fully unconstrained and reach true inclusion we must learn to let go. Do we have the ability to do that? Let's talk about that. Join us for a half-hour of becoming undone, joyfully.

Key Insights

  • Diversity in research teams does not inherently guarantee inclusivity or counter systemic oppression.

  • Awareness of power and identity positionality often leads to feeling stuck without clear action steps.

  • Our ways of being deeply shape our epistemologies and methodologies in research.

  • Colonial Western ways of being emphasize objectification and individualism, limiting emancipatory knowledge production.

  • Indigenous knowledge systems, like those of the iBio people, view knowledge as relational and emergent from relationships.

  • Songs and oral traditions can serve as valid research methodologies tied to indigenous ways of knowing.

  • Systems of value influence which knowledge is considered legitimate or beneficial, often marginalizing community knowledge.

  • Immigrant communities bring preserved ways of being that produce measurable health and social benefits.

  • Positive deviance in communities reveals untapped local wisdom that can guide effective interventions.

  • Radical participatory research requires researchers to relinquish control and let communities define methods based on their own ways of being.

Notable Quotes

"If diversity alone made research inclusive, then police could never be anti-black because they include black officers."

"Whiteness isn’t about color; people of all colors can reinforce white supremacy."

"Awareness leads to feeling stuck because we don’t know what to do or don’t feel empowered to act."

"Our ways of being are roots that grow into ways of knowing, doing, and methods, all nourished by systems of value."

"In Western modernity, if something is not an object, it is not real research or real knowledge."

"For the iBio people, knowledge is relational, not objectified, emerging from relationships like songs."

"Songs become methodologies—the way you identify who is at the door is through the song they sing."

"Colonial ways of being, knowing, and valuing will never produce emancipatory methodologies."

"Community-rooted wisdom like the Mexican 'guana' practice reduces postpartum depression without traditional research."

"Will you learn to let go? Better yet, will you let go?"

Ask the Rosenbot
Peter Van Dijck
Designing AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Ilana Lipsett
Anticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jen Crim
Culture, DIBS & Recruiting
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Farid Sabitov
Automatization for Large Enterprise Teams
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Roberta Dombrowski
5 Reasons to Bring your Recruiting in House
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Taylor Jennings
Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Charlotte Lee
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Fredrik Matheson
First-time users, longtime strategies: Why Parkinson’s Law is making you less effective at work – and how to design a fix.
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Ted Neward
Theme 4: Enterprise Organizational Journey
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Jen Cardello
Learning Velocity—The Insights Speedometer
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Mujtaba Hameed
Frameworks for Excellence: Using Visual Thinking and Communication to Elevate Your Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Theme One Intro
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
To Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Amy Evans
How to Create Change
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Pippa Lomas
Paving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Tanya Snook
Designing the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
2021 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Barb Spanton

"Shipping smaller, less complex side projects helps build team morale and energizes us for the big slow work."

Barb Spanton

Doing Work That Matters: A Look Beyond The Idealistic Notion of 'Doing Meaningful Work'

June 10, 2022

Dan Saffer

"The traditional user-centered design process doesn't work well for AI problems."

Dan Saffer

Why AI projects fail (and what we can do about it)

May 14, 2025

Ned Dwyer

"If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. That same idea applies to tool consolidation."

Ned Dwyer Jadyn Aguilar

The Future of DesignOps is Tool Consolidation

September 23, 2024

Chris Govias

"Activists inside the system are often the ones untangling the rubber band ball."

Chris Govias Mai-Ling Garcia Emily Lessard

Perspectives on Civic Design

September 23, 2021

Ariel Kennan

"I'm very much focused on voter registration language access and form design processes in my field."

Ariel Kennan

Civic Design in 2022

January 13, 2022

Alana Washington

"John Calhoun is going to talk to us about reaching our peak and figuring out if we’ve reached our peak and how to find the next one."

Alana Washington

Theme 3 Intro

October 1, 2021

Kristin Taylor

"A service must not unnecessarily expose a user to the internal structures of the organization providing the service."

Kristin Taylor

Building Bridges Across Organizational Silos

November 18, 2022

Uday Gajendar

"Meta design is about designing the conditions for design itself to happen well."

Uday Gajendar

The Rise of Meta-Design: A Starter Playbook

May 19, 2022

Mike Brzozowski

"UXers are decision architects; we mediate billions of decisions every day, many with real climate impact."

Mike Brzozowski Laura Palotie Steve Isley Nancy Tsang

UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices

July 17, 2024