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

2. 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

3. 4 themes
reality &
relations
language
interest

4. (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

5. 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’

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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’

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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