this is a both/and project (II)

 

"It is nothing more than due humility," as Gough & Reid (2000) suggest, "to open our minds to the insights claimed by those whose stories we do not share" (p. 54).

 

Since "large numbers of environmentally related contradictions in Canadian society can be traced to patterns of Western intellectual thought" (Hart, 1990, p. 45), different ways of knowing are needed in research to understand and respond to pervasive environmental concerns (e.g. Hart, 2003b, 2005a, 2005b; Hart & Nolan, 1999; Stirling, 2003, 2007).

 

Animist and (other) trans-rational (Astin, 2002), often ancient ways of knowing can bring new (old) insights to the challenges posed by anthropogenic planetary dis-ease, and need more active consideration within the context of academic discourse generally and research method(ologies) more specifically.

 

This does not mean the negation of contributions from the intellect and more familiar ways of doing research, but it does require that more space be provided (in academic journals, conference presentations, research methodology courses, and other spaces of conversation within the academy) for what have until recently, been marginalized epistemological and ontological premises within which research can be conducted (e.g. Dillard, 2006a; Shahjahan, 2005).