The post-human I: encountering ‘data’ in new materialism

Abstract

The editors of a recent special edition of Qualitative Studies in Education map a new field of post-qualitative research and raise fundamental questions about core concepts such as ‘method’ and ‘data.’ They ask whether qualitative inquiry as we know it is any longer possible if we understand language, the human and the material as completely imbricated. In taking up the relation between language and representation as core to what is proposed as the ‘new new,’ the paper examines these questions in relation to data generated in a project called ‘Love Your Lagoons’ conducted with 10 schools and 300 children in Sydney’s water catchment. In particular, the paper focuses on data from one secondary school that offered ‘Regeneration’ as a sport option in which the students walked to their local Redbank Creek every week and spent time there. By closely attending to the circumstances of the collection of data and analyzing it through approaches offered within the ‘new new,’ insights into the relationship between language, materiality, and the human are offered. Summary comments are made about the politico/ethical project of the post-human I and the relevance of data and method to such post-qualitative inquiry.

Keywords:

• Post-human entanglements
• new materialism
• new empiricism
• Anthropocene

Notes

1. The Australian yabby is a freshwater crustacean found in swamps, streams, rivers, reservoirs and farm dams. Traditionally a source of food for Aboriginal Australians, catching yabbies is a popular summer time activity for children.