The Time Dimension of Qualitative Research for the Anthropocene

• In Event: Writing Together-Apart: Navigating the Post-Qualitative, New Materialist, and Critical Posthumanist Research Across Disciplines

Abstract

Objectives & Perspectives

We live in a time of climate change, called the Anthropocene, literally, the ‘geology of mankind’. Climate change is one of the most evidenced and proven theories of science, with the link between human activity on the planet Earth and its warming climate unassailable. Climate change will affect all of us, every teacher, student and population in the world. This paper will make a link between this time of climate disruption and the philosophy of time of Gilles Deleuze, and how it can be deployed in qualitative inquiry. The objectives of the paper are: 1) Explain the philosophy of time of Gilles Deleuze. 2) Link this philosophy with qualitative inquiry 3) Exemplify how this linkage may help qualitative researchers in their educational work in times of radical change. This paper is of relevance to wider study that looks to engage with climate issues in qualitative educational inquiry, sometimes framed as climate justice.
The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze has been of interest to educational researchers since the 1990s. Philosophers of education such as Inna Semetsky (2006), Jason Wallin, Elizabeth St. Pierre (2014), Greg Thompson and Maggie Maclure have been using Deleuze’s ideas for qualitative research, and for different educational research purposes for the last 20 years. I have been connecting the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari with climate change and education for the last 5 years through concepts such as geophilosophy. This paper will specifically look at the theory of time from Deleuze and apply it to educational qualitative research. This action fills a need in the field for understanding how to incorporate a theory of time with climate change analysis and qualitative work through the philosophy of education.

Modes of Inquiry & Data
This paper does not use an explicit data set, but includes reflections on living and working through the worst bushfires in Australian history, called the ‘Black Summer’. This was a time when everything stopped, and civilization was on the brink of collapse. It is suggested that this experience will not be isolated in the Anthropocene. .

Insights & Scholarly Significance
This paper will draw out insights from Gilles Deleuze’s work on time, and make them comprehensible for a qualitative research audience. Deleuze’s solo oeuvre is complex (e.g., 1994, 1988), and works such as Difference & Repetition, The Logic of Sense and The Fold have intrigued educational researchers for many years. This paper will uniquely deploy this philosophy of time for qualitative educational research inquiry in the anthropocene. This should be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of the philosophy(e.g., posthumanists/new materialists) of education and climate justice.

Authors

• David R Cole, Western Sydney University

• Mehri Mirzaeirafe, University of North Texas