August 5, 2022

"The Tarot of Transgressive Research" . . .

This 2019 paper has been in my files for a while, but I never found the right time to write about it. Til now!

If you’ve had some practice reading academic papers, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Though there’s a lot of jargon, the authors make a complex, inventive argument.

I downloaded a free copy from Academia.edu, and you should be able to do the same.

But for those who haven’t the time or patience to untangle the whole paper, here are some intriguing highlights:

The role of science and knowledge production itself is at a crossroads, as societal transformation calls for challenging dominant forms of knowledge production and the established protocols and discourses that have contributed to marginalizing other ways of knowing.

. . . .

In this article, we argue that the discourse and practice on the needed transformation of science must bring these diverse activist and transgressive approaches into dialogue. This includes learning from activist, queer, feminist, indigenous and non-Western approaches and methodologies, embodied ways of knowing, and further openness to novel approaches and experimentation.

. . . .

In this paper we propose the Tarot as a device for exploring diverse approaches to research. The Tarot is a set of playing cards, usually consisting of a pack of 78 figures or symbols which is traditionally used as a way to awaken the intuition of the reader and the “querent” as a means to improve their understanding of a situation or provide an answer to a question. The cards, divided into the minor and major arcana, represent a variety of different situations, archetypal concepts, and/or personality traits, such as “the Lovers”, “the Hermit”, “Death” and “the Fool”, that can be read as a language, composed of symbolic representations like notes in a musical scale, each one having a different effect on the reader of the cards.

. . . .

The Tarot cards can thus be seen as keys which aim to unlock intuition by challenging the reader to confront symbols they would not normally consider. In this way the Tarot can lead to new insights, out-of-the box thinking and a new perspective. Each card or character will prompt in the reader a different interpretation and association informed by her life experiences, stories and personal narrative.

Inspired by the use of the Tarot as a narrative device, a descriptive tool, and a way for the researcher to connect with their intuition, we suggest that the Tarot and its characters can be used by researchers struggling, as do we, with defining their role as scholars and activists in a transforming world in several ways.

. . . .

To this end, we created an exercise employing arts-based methods that invites researchers to define and explore their own roles and responsibilities and identities as scholars. During workshops held in Beirut, Barcelona, South Africa and Lund, Sweden, we invited researchers to reflect on the following key questions, and to create their own “Tarot card”, using a process of collage that involves selecting from symbolic images provided or ones they had gathered that speak to the research identities, tensions, questions and concerns in their work.

• What character or role do you identify with in your research/activism up to this point?

• What images surface for you when you think of your work?

• What challenges and tensions come into play when you adopt this role?

The exercise led to the creation of a space for reflexive exploration into each researcher/activist's unique and plural expressions of their roles and actions, both ideal and actual, that were generatively surfaced in this simple process.

Here’s a snapshot of one workshop, described as an “arts-based Tarot process.”

In the end, the researchers came up with seven Tarot-like characters that, as they explain:

we have seen both within our own research communities and in critical literature, each of which embodies diverse aspects of academic and political rigour in their own way.

Here’s a sample of their final product:

Although the “Post-Normal Scientist” card on the right is identified as analogous to the Tarot Fool, the others seem to incorporate ideas and imagery from more than one trump.

As for the meaning of each card, in the context of transgressive scholarship—you’ll really have to read the paper.

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Ecological Economics is a peer-reviewed journal, with an acceptance rate of 13%—so I’m fascinated by the fact that they published this paper!

Beyond that, from an EP perspective, the story offers one more example of how widely Tarot is recognized as an intellectual/creative tool.

See you tomorrow. C