Making meanings… making respons-able worlds A relational constructionist narrative

Scientific paradigms science = one way of knowing Naïve realism Critical realism Relational Constructionism … eg eastern/western, science & magic, secular & spiritual… Physics: Copernicus(Heliocentric); what about flat earthers...! Einstein – Newton… ‘Normal’ science - Kuhn - revolutions

4 themes reality & relations language interest

(Naïve) realism reality & relations sense data language singular, universal, ‘object out there’ available to be known by separate subject Subject-Object relations sense data language re-presents the world interest: knowing ‘the world as it really is’ 1 language = a tool for talking about relations between P & Context 2 Common western tfg of science: mind & reality each have a separate existence The scientist is the active, knowing Subject in a world of knowable Objects… Breaking with earlier ‘participative” world view (eg as in alchemy)… Descartes legacy mind-body dualism

Critical realism sense data – basis for unquestioned: ‘perception’ …as constructive sense making knower combines what it is ‘in the head’ with what is in the world unquestioned: role of language, 1 single reality (world) ‘out there’ separate person & world, individual agent Wider context: science & scientific rationalism - central interest: what is real, is true - as transcendental facts about ‘the world’. Mainstream sc interpretation stayed within the confines of its initial presuppositions/tfg’s & these set limits on possible interpretations e.g., tfg’s about whats real define whats ‘magic’ e.g., the senses can be ‘fooled’

Relational constructionism social realities: achievements produced in inter-actions i.e., co-constructions neither subjective nor objective but relational multiple and ongoing > or < local language: is action, is performative is a local cultural practice interests: what & how of making realities Local in the sense of not trans-historical or universal Shift from language as representation to actions THEN our world is no longer thought of as a world of separate things but of relationships we co-author (participative world view) What kinds of realities do we want to make/live in?

The ‘how’ of making realities focus: on becoming (rather than being) i.e., on the ongoing relational or co-construction of self - other & relationship constructing Self-Other & relation as Subject-Object? other possibilities? What/content focus being realism received view of science (RVS) & so scientist apart from Other in subject-object (S-O) relation

constructing S-O relations 1 acting in ways that make other an Object to be known (by Self) to be influenced (by Self) to be used as an instrument (by Self - in relation to what Self defines as ‘real and good’) examples: having visions – for Other not listening to, silencing, excommunicating Other intensive farming, colonialism… Where Other can be other people but also any thing to which we give ontology including eg ‘nature’

constructing S-O relations 2 individual responsibility care of the (separate) self individual freedom relationship becomes an arti-fact (artificial) (re)constructing property, individual rights, individual (ir)rationality fools, heretics, wrongdoers… to blame, punish, ex-communicate, so change individuals &/or the constraints on their actions Self-contained individualism Fire the guilty one, retrain &/or Re-structure, change the law… manage meanings etc… All reproduce Subject-Object relations… & in this sense – plus ca change

reframing relating my interest: response-able processes that: practical know-how relational response-ability response-able processes that: are open to multiple constructions of what is real & good are reflexive about what & how are generative (of possibilities) create ‘power to’ go on in different but equal relations eg mono-cultural dominance? …eg what kinds of stories do we tell about leadership? Could there be many narratives of leadership? How would we generate them? Inquiry: in the Story of Science - ‘finds out’ about reality ‘out there’… but now we see it as constructing a relatively closed narrative about ‘what really is the case’ – How to make inquiry open, reflexive, & useful (in relation to multiple realities of what is & should be) Open to multiple realities,(link to power) provocative of change (not as a replacement of existing approaches but as another legitimate possibility)

Babel: a confusion of tongues Example: Constructing the Foot & Mouth Disaster in the UK many voices, little listening, little dialogue dominant discourses, voice of Science, rationality, facts… right-wrong power over Other

Babel as multiple dialogues & listening co-constructing realities not individual action & responsibility, & not consensus decision-making sharing con-texts stories not abstract data differences treated as natural, & as good data

Generating ‘power to’ – for a change bring all your relations to work! give voice to your multiple identities widen the margins of participation dialogue with unheard, silent, or silenced others focus on possibilities, not problems dialogue not debate un-settling, space clearing, open listening… Ground rules Eg inter-logic’s work: open expression of purpose (rather than explanation…) eg PCP