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
Jen van der Meer
Service design performs value
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Conference
Giff Constable
Financial fluency for product leaders: AMA with Giff Constable
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Theme 3 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Alana Washington
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Prayag Narula
HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Craig Brookes
"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Chloe Amos-Edkins
A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Sean Baker
Weaving Knowledge Management into the Fabric of Our Design Practice
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Conference
Sarah Barrett
The "How" of Enterprise Information Architecture
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Jess Greco
Claiming your power: Practical tools for amplifying your unique voice
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Maggie Dieringer
Cutting through the Noise
2020 • DesignOps Community
Ron Bronson
Design, Consequences & Everyday Life
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dianne Que
Real Talk: Proving Value through a Scrappy Playbook
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Greg Petroff
Software as Material—A Redux
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Ovetta Sampson
Research in the Automated Future
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

Edward Cupps

"I was doing all the things, and it wasn’t sustainable."

Edward Cupps

The Principal Path: Journeying from Management to Individual Contributor

June 11, 2021

Spencer L. A. Stultz

"Aligning with dominant culture is what gets you rewarded, but it alienates anyone who falls into an other bucket."

Spencer L. A. Stultz

Why Social Justice Frameworks are Necessary for Successful DEI/JEDI Initiatives

October 4, 2023

Alla Weinberg

"If I make a mistake on our team, it’s not gonna be held against me; my team won’t disconnect from me."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 9, 2022

Crystal Philcox

"You have to put on many faces — different skills and mindsets — to communicate with purchasing, finance, legal, and HR."

Crystal Philcox

The Many Faces of Operations

November 6, 2017

Ellen Chisa

"Share price is actually a model of the expected value of all future income of a company."

Ellen Chisa

The Values of Design

November 29, 2023

Rachel Radway

"I dreamed about work every night for a year as I was learning the language of corporate tech jargon and ux terms."

Rachel Radway Katie Bingham Joe Wiertel

The Many Paths Of Design Operations

September 8, 2022

Verónica Urzúa

"We need to break the dream and move from spectators to actors who create knowledge grounded in our reality."

Verónica Urzúa Jorge Montiel

The B-side of the Research Impact

March 12, 2021

Christian Bason

"Empathy in design has been too focused on people and often on standardized personas rather than true diversity and marginalized voices."

Christian Bason

Expand—Rethinking Design for Public Challenges

September 14, 2022

Aiyana Bodi

"The Web Sustainability Guidelines are massive but could become the first recognized standard for sustainable digital design."

Aiyana Bodi James Christie Marc O'Brien Louis Rosenfeld

Three Key Climate Initiatives and How You Can Help

September 11, 2024