I can’t believe we are at week 17 ! Time flies, truly.

The course has changed my life in so many ways I cannot even begin to fathom. My eyes and perspectives have widened, I am learning in different ways. Being 33, I didn’t think I would want to go back and study in university but I am finding myself diving into the readings and theories. Sometime the readings are too long and it is a struggle to want to finish, and other times its just super interesting time passes so quickly.

One of the people of interest for today’s session is Donna Haraway, I just finished watching her documentary: Story telling for Earthly Survival. She is a feminist theorist, a philosopher of science and a cultural critic. She is known for her work: cyborg theory, situated knowledges and mutlispecies relationships. In the documentary, she reflects on her journey and discusses the importance of storytelling as a means of survival for all species on earth, not just human beings. Through storytelling, she argues, we can construct new narratives that challenge dominant power structures, address environmental crises, and foster connections with other beings.She emphasizes the need to move beyond human-centered narratives and recognize the agency and interconnectedness of all life forms.
Haraway’s thought-provoking ideas and the urgency of reimagining our relationships with the planet and its inhabitants. The film serves as a call to action for storytelling as a means of confronting the challenges of the present and shaping a more just and sustainable future.

Googling the meaning of Story-telling: “Storytelling is the vivid description of ideas, beliefs, personal experiences, and life- lessons through stories or narratives that evoke powerful emotions and insights. Storytelling has advantages over the communication techniques commonly used in organizations, be they electronic mail, reports, or formal speeches.”

Storytelling to me is also how people know about their history and civilizations, from the nuclear family all the way to the country as a whole. The justice and injustice of events that have happened to a group of people, a society and how events have shaped them. Storytelling is a very powerful tool used in every part of life, movies, social media, art, families, cultures, friends and the list goes on and on and on.

In “Storytelling for Earthly Survival,” Donna Haraway offers numerous insights and benefits to viewers:

1. Reimagining relationships: Haraway encourages viewers to rethink their relationships with other beings on Earth, emphasizing interconnectedness and mutual dependence.
2. Critique of anthropocentrism: She challenges anthropocentric perspectives, urging people to move beyond human-centered narratives and consider the agency of nonhuman entities.
3. Environmental consciousness: Haraway promotes environmental consciousness by highlighting the interconnectedness of all life forms and the importance of caring for the planet.
4. Intersectional feminism: Through her feminist lens, Haraway addresses issues of power, inequality, and oppression, advocating for intersectional approaches to social justice.
5. Agency of nonhuman entities: She emphasizes the agency and significance of nonhuman beings, challenging human exceptionalism and promoting multispecies perspectives.
6. Chthulucene: Haraway introduces the concept of the Chthulucene as an alternative to the Anthropocene, emphasizing symbiotic relationships and the entangled nature of existence.
7. Storytelling as resistance: Haraway sees storytelling as a form of resistance against dominant power structures, offering alternative narratives that challenge oppressive ideologies.
8. Ethical responsibility: She calls for ethical responsibility towards the planet and its inhabitants, urging viewers to consider the consequences of their actions on the environment and other species.
9. Embracing complexity: Haraway encourages embracing complexity and messiness in understanding the world, rejecting simplistic explanations in favor of nuanced perspectives.
10. Hope for the future: Ultimately, Haraway offers hope for the future by suggesting that storytelling can help create more sustainable and just ways of living on Earth.

The other readying was of John Law’s paper on: Making a mess with method.

“Making a Mess with Method” by John Law explores the complexities and challenges of applying methodological frameworks in social science research. Law argues that methodologies are not neutral tools but instead shape and influence the knowledge produced. He highlights the limitations of traditional methods and proposes embracing messiness and complexity in research processes to better capture the multifaceted nature of social phenomena.

Key points:

1. Critique of traditional methodologies: Law critiques traditional methodologies in social science research, arguing that they often oversimplify complex phenomena and fail to account for the messy realities of the world.
2. Recognition of the role of methodology in shaping knowledge: Law emphasizes that methodologies are not neutral tools but actively shape and influence the knowledge produced. Researchers’ choices of methods can constrain what can be known and how it is known.
3. Embrace of messiness and complexity: Rather than attempting to tidy up the messiness of the world through methodological frameworks, Law suggests embracing this messiness. He argues that messy phenomena require messy methods, which can better capture their complexity.
4. Importance of reflexivity: Law emphasizes the importance of reflexivity in research, encouraging researchers to critically reflect on their own methodologies and assumptions. This reflexivity can help researchers recognize the limitations and biases inherent in their chosen methods.
5. Call for methodological pluralism: Instead of adhering strictly to one methodological approach, Law advocates for methodological pluralism. He suggests drawing on a range of methods and approaches to better understand complex phenomena from multiple perspectives.