Deleuze and research methodologies

Abstract

The methodological crisis that resulted from conservative, closed-circle orthodoxy in the field of social sciences has led us to question our toolbox of empirical research methods over the last decade. Aside from the issue of conducting quantitative and qualitative research methodologies separately, and the problems of grounding theory in empirical practice, the discussion of embedded situational research methods has been much neglected in academia. Additionally, the multiplicity of new forms for contemporary knowledge production urges us to adapt our methods. Nowadays, the gap between theory and practice is frequently challenged from a Deleuzian perspective. Deleuzian research is often based on understanding the social subject as an affect and as an experience. Furthermore, from a Deleuzian perspective, in our complex societies ‘data’ is a rhizomatic assemblage that needs to be searched, evaluated, analysed and represented with complex tools or, indeed, with new research tools invented accordingly. Recently, visual tools and production methods such as moving image, video activism, mapping, visual networking, digital archiving and performative artistic research have been employed and applied often in transdisciplinary research based on a Deleuzian conceptualisation of knowledge production. This means visuality as both concept and a product is not only a representation of knowledge but also the machine that drives it.