The Politics of Radical Research: A Manifesto
Summary
This session is intended to be messy and will leave you with more questions than you came in with. We shall start off by asking ourselves “what are you pretending not to know?” This question inspired by African-American scholar and activist Toni Cade Bambara will guide us into the conversation. How do we understand our role as researchers? In what ways are we complicit in reproducing structural inequities and systemic harm? This manifesto is centered around 3 “big” themes: At what and whose cost do we engage in research? What right do I have to engage in this research work? What if I refused to participate? This is an invitation to get intimate with ourselves and investigate the privilege(s) we hold as researchers and designers. Reflecting on the power imbalances that exist, how can we move toward a culturally thriving and sustainably empowering approach to emancipatory research that centers minoritized communities? Asking these questions and sitting with their complexities is urgent and necessary. Together, we strive for less extractive, decolonial, and anti-capitalist visions for research that are rooted in liberatory harm reduction, relationship building and community empowerment.
Key Insights
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Researchers benefit from and simultaneously reproduce harmful systems, requiring deep self-awareness and accountability.
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Empathy should be the baseline foundation of research, not the ultimate goal, because it cannot fully capture lived experience.
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Centering marginalized people’s lived experiences must avoid appropriating or ‘stealing’ their stories.
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Monetary compensation alone is insufficient; research should embody reciprocity, care, and generous ethical compensation.
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Time is a weaponized, commodified social construct that contributes to extractive research practices for both researchers and participants.
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Research is often treated like a mining operation, but humans must not be commodified as mining resources.
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Researchers must differentiate between their right to engage versus feelings of entitlement and constantly reflect on access and privilege.
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Trauma should not be treated as a prerequisite or ‘rite of passage’ for research participation, nor a justification for tokenism.
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Researcher agency includes the power to choose to refuse participation or alter modes of engagement ethically.
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Harm is inevitable in complex systems; acknowledging caused harm and repairing relationships is a critical ethical responsibility.
Notable Quotes
"The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situation but rather that piece of the oppressor that lives in all of us."
"Empathy is really just the floor, not the ceiling; it cannot replace someone's actual lived experience."
"If you walk in someone else’s shoes, then you’ve taken their shoes."
"Please do not engage in mining; research is not a mining operation."
"What role does time play as a form of currency in contributing to extractive methods of research?"
"We must distinguish between right and entitlement when engaging in research and acknowledge the responsibility that accompanies privilege."
"Does communal proximity guarantee the right to engage in research? This is a complicated question without easy answers."
"Trauma should not be reduced to a right of passage that justifies participation in research."
"Choosing to remain silent is still a choice; agency means owning how and if you participate."
"Are you able to say I caused harm, and can you repair the relationships and impacts your work has created?"
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