Sediment, subversion and suffering: Can the project be resisted?

Collins, Katie; Cicmil, Svetlana

Abstract

In this paper, we seek to entwine a number of epistemic and practical perspectives around an activity that is increasingly the foundation of knowledge production: the funded research project. Specifically, we have chosen as our example a project commissioned and funded as participatory research, because participatory research in its full, radical, emancipatory glory ought to function as inherently subversive. And yet, to attempt such resistance in practice requires near constant, exhausting and stressful vigilance against the power of reason that resides in the sedimented reality (Butler, 1990) of “selection process and the public good” (Lyotard, in Fredrich, 1999, p. 46), which seem inevitable while the research ‘industry’ is dominated by positivistic modes of knowledge production that won’t legitimise alternative conceptions of knowledge.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: The 8th Making Projects Critical - An International Conference
• Start Date: Jan 21, 2016
• End Date: Jan 22, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Dec 18, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: project management
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/918146
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : The 8th Making Projects Critical - An International Conference