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
Jennifer Strickland
Adopting a "Design By" Method
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Theme Panel
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Laura Weiss
Turn Down the Heat: 3 Ways to Handle Conflict in the Moment
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Chris Engledowl
A Mixed Method Approach to Validity to Help Build Trust
2023 • QuantQual Interest Group
Aurobinda Pradhan
Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Frances Yllana
DesignOps–Leading the Path to Parity
2023 • DesignOps Community
Renee Reid
Becoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Bryce Benton
[Demo] AI-powered UX enhancement: Aligning GitHub documentation with USWDS at Austin Public Library
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Yoel Sumitro
Actions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Amy Jiménez Márquez
The Atypical UX Manager Path
2020 • Enterprise Community
Alla Weinberg
Cross-Functional Relationship Design
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Andrew Custage
The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jaskiran Kang
Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design
2022 • Civic Design Community
Russ Unger
Getting Out from Under Everyone: How to Escape the Paralysis of Getting Started
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Christopher Taylor Edwards
Design as a Team Practice, A Practical Guide to Cross-functional Collaboration
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Tutti Taygerly
Videconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
2020 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Ebru Namaldi

"Designers should not be left to figure things out alone as we grow faster."

Ebru Namaldi

Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps

September 11, 2025

Mackenzie Guinon

"I call this the moment of I’ve been doing this all along—people realize they were practicing research before they knew the name."

Mackenzie Guinon

M.C. Escher’s UX Research Career Ladder

March 9, 2022

Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA)

"The fly on the wall approach is a myth; interaction between filmmaker and people is what makes documentary film interesting."

Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA) Charley Scull Prabhas Pokharel

What Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking

March 11, 2022

Kim Lenox

"Nothing can get done without fostering and building trust."

Kim Lenox

Leading Distributed Global Teams

May 20, 2019

Andrew Michael

"Data analysts and user researchers rarely work together effectively, which is one of the biggest missed opportunities."

Andrew Michael

Building a Product Insights Team

March 10, 2022

Luz Bratcher

"The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work of peace and destroys the root of inner wisdom."

Luz Bratcher

This Is a Talk for Tired People

June 10, 2022

Surya Vanka

"Design thinking has to be embedded at scale to capture and align creativity across a massive company."

Surya Vanka

Unleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges

June 10, 2021

Jayne Engle

"Proofs of possibility, not just experiments, are essential to demonstrate viable pathways for systemic transformation."

Jayne Engle Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook

Civic Design for the Next Seven Generations—A Discussion on Sacred Civics

August 25, 2022

Jon Fukuda

"Order today is change, and the uncertainty that it brings rules us day and night."

Jon Fukuda

Theme One Intro

October 2, 2023