Researching Postcapitalist Possibilities

Last week, my research note Pluriversal bodies: researching care through embodied ethnography came out in Asia Pacific Viewpoint. I provide a short ‘layperson’ summary here.

This research note reflects on the fieldwork I carried out in China, also detailed in my book Caring for Life: A postdevelopment politics of hygiene. In the research note, I explore how researchers can study care and caregiving by paying attention to embodied experiences and considering cross-cultural differences. Here are the key points:

1. Embodied Methodologies: I explain how I used embodied methodologies in ethnographic research on care. This means understanding how our bodies and experiences shape our understanding of care and caregiving. For me, paying attention to what my body was telling me as I crossed cultures of care helped me perceive and understand cross-cultural differences in care.
2. Awkward Engagements: I think about how my body perceived and experienced difference through Anna Tsing’s concept of awkward engagements, where different cultural understandings and practices of care interact. These interactions can lead to new insights and understandings of care.
3. Pluriverse Concept: I reflect on the concept of the pluriverse, which refers to the multiple, overlapping realities of ontology, culture, and experience. This concept helps us understand the diverse ways care is practiced and experienced, and to make space for other care realities in our research rather than seek to find one universal approach to care.

Throughout the article, I draw on various scholars’ work and provide examples from my own research in the Asia Pacific region.

I think this article would be useful in methods classes where ethnography or cross-cultural research is discussed. It’s relatively short and easy to read.