Research in the Pluriverse
Summary
There are many innovations in “research” that push the field forward. From inclusive research, democratizing research, fast research, futures research, and VR/AR research to mixed methods, agile research, participatory research, behavioral research, AI research, systems research, and trauma-responsive research; the future of research seems to be improving. However, the vast majority of innovations in “research” work at the outer surface of “research,” leaving the Anglocentric core of “research,” along with its assumptions and views, fundamentally untouched. Interestingly, only a tiny percentage of research is done by people we call researchers. The vast majority of research is done by people around the world in the service of their hyperlocal being and doing, their aspirations, livelihoods, survival, visions, thriving, and problem-solving. With their inspiration, what happens when we break away from this UNIverse, this one-world world with only one center, one globalizing Westernized understanding and control of research and knowledge? What happens when we enter a world of many centers and many understandings of knowledge and research that come from various ways of being in the world? What happens when we acknowledge and enter the pluralistic multiverse - the pluriverse? Let us explore what research in the pluriverse looks like and whether you are ready to embark on a pluriversal journey. It only requires a yes.
Key Insights
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Colonial and modernist epistemologies have historically marginalized Indigenous and plural ways of knowing by privileging only one rigid form of 'truth'.
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Knowledge exists in multiple forms including embodied, energetic, spiritual, relational, aesthetic, and lived experiential, not just institutional scientific knowledge.
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Research should not be reduced to data collection or problem solving but viewed as relational storytelling, cultural preservation, and community stewardship.
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Pluralistic research values diverse methods including fable-based, dance-based, musicological, and art-based approaches embedded in specific local contexts.
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Relational research focuses on building and sustaining relationships through which knowledge naturally flows, rather than extracting data from subjects.
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Poverty and ignorance can be reframed as a lack of healthy relationships that facilitate the flow of resources and knowledge.
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Some colonial researchers have begun rejecting extractive methodologies, choosing instead to transform institutions by embracing pluralistic research practices.
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Research rigor in pluralistic approaches is defined by community health, survival, and approval rather than solely by coding or synthesis frameworks.
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The plural reversal challenges one dominant universal order, advocating for a pluriverse of coexisting knowledge systems and ontologies.
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Language and place govern research practice in Indigenous contexts, with local mother tongues essential to accessing and preserving knowledge.
Notable Quotes
"I want a story that moves and quakes me, palpitates my heart and shakes me."
"There was a time when people vastly prioritized truth over story, claiming to know all things and bring everything to the light."
"Mainstream institutional knowledge is just a study of aesthetic, energetic, intuitive, embodied, relational, community and cultural knowledge."
"We lived a better story worlding and restoring, but the system did not respond or change."
"Research was always, but finally became relational story, storytelling sacred holding rich communion community."
"Poverty isn’t the absence of money. Poverty is the absence of relationships."
"Relational research builds relationships and the knowledge automatically flows."
"Plural reversal is a world of many sensors where no one way of knowing cannibalizes the others."
"Research doesn’t have a governing methodology; there is only presence, place, relationship, and practice."
"Language learning is a required component of the work because so much knowledge and values are stored in the language."
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