Where Do You Stand: Philosophical Orientations

Abstract

The process of researching is an educational process: We attempt to learn something new. And in the case of PA^tR, those involved in the research create better conditions for themselves and in a flow on effect, perhaps for others. We can learn more through applying theory and constructing new theory, taking new perspectives, creating new insights and applying new practices just as we benefit from breakthroughs in technology or how we understand the mind. Throughout this chapter, we take an oppositional view of theory in that we understand theory to be critical (not simply affirmative or reproductive) and capable of producing new knowledges. Theory provides people with the individual and therefore political space to understand their situatedness within emerging social relations. We understand that the personal is political. For there to be change in societal practices, there needs to be changes in individual practices and therefore in practices between individuals. As you saw in Chap. 3, at root, critical theory (CT) is not neutral. It identifies itself with the interests and struggles of the people that we are involved with as workers in cultural professions. One’s beliefs, attitudes and assumptions come from one’s philosophical orientations, and we investigate these here as a means of supporting why certain questions might be asked and answered through PA^tR and why other questions might sit outside PA^tR.