From Technique to Technicity: Non-Methodological Explorations of Chairs, Neurodiversity, and Schooling

Abstract

In response to the call for this special issue, we draw upon Erin Manning’s (2013, 2016) theorizing of technique and technicity to reconsider schooling and inquiry practices through the chair. The chair is often taken for granted and narrowly conceived through the lens of neurotypicality. By beginning with technique and technicity, this work foregrounds affect, relation and process, rather than object, form and method, so as to dislodge the chair from the sedimented practices of schooling and inquiry. In the emergent fashion of research-creation, this article makes use of genealogy, narrative and theory to explore how the interplay of technique and technicity might engender different modes of chair-ing, and how these modes might speak to concerns of neurodiverse schooling and research methods.