This session is open to registered participants at the Transformations Conference 2021.

Presenters:

Jesús M. Siqueiros, Alex Penn; Lakshmi Charli-Joseph; Beth Cullen; Marina Apgar; Andrew Stirling

Abstract:

Structural, systemic and enabling transformations towards sustainability require reconnecting to our local environment and the biosphere in general (i.e., Folke et al. 2011, Scoones et al. 2020, among others). With the aim of contributing to this notion, for us the meaning of reconnecting is to acknowledge our position as scientists and society in general as embedded in a world that is experientially meaningful to us. We posit that transformations need to start with our recognition that we are not acting on a world that we are detached from, but that it is a world in which we live, we are part of it, and shared among us meaningfully.

We posit that reconnecting to the biosphere needs radical approaches. In this spirit, we suggest exploring the notion of 2nd person epistemologies and methodologies. We have worked on the idea of 2nd person perspective, yet is still a primitive intuition that we broadly understand as one that:

1. Intends to bring together the 3rd person methodologies of science with the 1st person meaningful experiences of the world as we live it –from within; and
2. Demands to address others –human and non-human- as subjects, recognising the authenticity of their experiences as living the system we share, rather than approach them as mere objects of study, alien to our existence.

As part of the STEPS Centre 2021 theme focused on Methods, this Practice Session will be centred on the exploration of the notion of 2nd person epistemologies and methodologies.