Abstract
Interest in new empiricisms and transdisciplinary methods has led many social inquirers to engage with 20th-century post-classical physical science. Many of these projects have focused on alternative matter–mind mixtures and in/organic variation, concerned that past theories of sociality have dismissed the vibrancy and animacy of the nonhuman material world. This paper explores the power of speculative fiction to help us rethink empiricism in posthuman ecologies of the Anthropocene, in the midst of post-truth conditions and growing science denialism. We foreground speculative fiction as a way to open up scientific imaginaries, rethinking the relationship between nature, technics, and human “sense” making. We show how such texts offer alternative images of research methods for studying pluralist ecologies and new forms of worldly belonging.
Highlights
Much has recently been written about the need to rethink the nature and purpose of social inquiry (Clough, 2009; Maclure, 2013; Ruppert et al, 2013)
We explore the following questions: 1. Are there scientific imaginaries evoked in speculative fiction that might be helpful in rethinking the nature of empirical inquiry?
We have collaboratively developed a method of working with Speculative fiction (SF) texts, exploring the ways in which the storyworld opens up possibilities for new forms of social-material inquiry
Summary
Much has recently been written about the need to rethink the nature and purpose of social inquiry (Clough, 2009; Maclure, 2013; Ruppert et al, 2013). 2. In what ways does speculative fiction present alternative research methods for studying pluralist posthuman ecologies and new forms of worldly belonging?
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