School of Social and Political Science

Description

You can join us in the Practice Suite, or if you can't make it in person, we will be sending out a Teams joining link before the session.

Social change can be difficult – even when it involves social scientists. Despite longstanding calls to decolonise methodologies, and to embrace creative methodological approaches, Ndlohvu suggests that we face ‘methodological stasis’ (2021). For researchers in some areas, engaging with decolonial strategies (or creative approaches) are not a priority.

This presentation will consider theoretically how such stasis is situated within wider social scientific and public communities. That is – by thinking more carefully about how methodological lineages have changed in the past, I question how we can make them different in the future. I argue that what we need now is not rich concepts for tracing and distinguishing past traditions, but a means of seeing our collective methodological practice as part of a trajectory of change.

By introducing the concept of ‘methodologies-in/as-practices’ and highlighting examples of collaborative creative outputs from a MethodsNW project on Methodological discontents, I highlight the importance of making decolonial strategies accessible to even those who have not yet developed a deep knowledge of colonialism or varied epistemologies. I welcome diverse voices into this conversation about how we can unlearn and relearn ways of shifting methodological traditions, together. It will be of particular interest for those who are working at the boundaries of different disciplinary/methodological/epistemological traditions, and those who are curious about shaping social change across diverse communities.

By Dr Allison Hui

"I am a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Lancaster University. My research is interested in the emergence and transformation of sets of diverse, interwoven social practices. Building primarily upon contemporary practice theories, I contribute to inter and intra-disciplinary dialogues that critically analyse how varied practices interlink and explore creative methodologies for responding. This approach also underpins my engagement with diverse communities as an educational leader. Previous research has addressed cases straddling the boundaries of home/away, leisure/tourism/migration, everyday routines/exceptions, and has also been underpinning by interests in temporalities and spatialities. Current interests include decolonising methodologies and transformations in educational leadership practices."