Becoming with data and theory: Workshop on diffractive methodology

Presented by Dr Sanna Toiviainen and Dr AnnaBilon-Piorko

Monday 8 December, 13:00–15:00, Kedleston Road Campas Room: E901

About the workshop

This interactive methodology workshop introduces participants to diffractive analysis developed especially by Karen Barad, with conceptual connections to Donna Haraway’s work. Grounded in relational ontology, diffractive methodology challenges conventional separations between theory and data, discourse and materiality, and subject and object, and challenges the researcher to overcome such dualisms with concepts such as entanglement, intra-action, becoming, and agential cuts. Thinking diffractively, in short, means thinking as a process of co-constitution, investigating the entanglement of ideas and other materialities in ways that reflexive methodologies do not (Barad, 2007:74). Diffractive methodology challenges researchers to reconsider research ethics and the always-present ontological and epistemological dimensions of their research.

A diffractive methodology is a post-qualitative and post-humanist approach that enables researchers to capture the complexity and interdependence of contemporary reality and gain a deeper understanding of it. It challenges conventional analytical frameworks and invites researchers to experiment with theory and practice in creative, reflective ways—learning to “read” data through difference rather than comparison. It also fosters sensitivity to the multiple agencies that shape research processes, including both human and nonhuman actors.

Workshop Elements

The workshop includes the following elements:

  1. Introduction of key theoretical and methodological concepts from post-qualitative research, including entanglement, intra-action, diffractive patterns
  2. A framework for ethico-onto-epistemological self-reflection in research.
  3. Demonstration of diffractive analysis using a vignette as a case study.
  4. Group work with vignettes and theoretical concepts to explore diffractive reading in practice
  5. A joint plenum discussion to reflect on the analytical process and its implications.

The workshop is designed to be collaborative and co-generative, offering participants new tools to think-and-become with theory and data drawing from concepts grounded in the new materialist research tradition and diffractive methodology in particular. It is particularly relevant for those interested in critical, feminist, posthumanist, and social justice-oriented methodologies.

 

About the presenters

Dr Sanna Toiviainen is an Associate Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, Department of Culture, Religion, and Social Studies, where she teaches in the Master's programme for Career Guidance. Her research has focused on educational, youth, and integration policies from a career guidance perspective; guidance interventions for young people not in education, training or employment (NEET); and career and integration support taking shape in migrant community settings.

She is particularly interested in issues of ex/inclusion, advancing relational and context-embedded approaches in career research and guidance, drawing on sociological, post-structural, and feminist perspectives, including the posthumanist and relational ontologies of Haraway and Barad.

Anna Bilon-Piórko, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the DSW University of Lower Silesia. Her research focuses on career guidance, social justice in education, and adult learning. She investigates agency in education and career guidance, career learning processes, and the impact of neoliberal policies on guidance systems. Her work draws on relational approaches and post-structural perspectives, including the ideas of Karen Barad, to explore how educational and guidance practices are co-shaped through human and material entanglements. She also examines cross-national perspectives on diverse career guidance practices and contributes to the professional development of career guidance practitioners. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0967-5322

  • Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. duke university Press.
  • Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. A. (2013). Plugging One Text Into Another: Thinking With Theory in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(4), 261–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800412471510
  • ​​Mazzei, L. A. (2014). Beyond an Easy Sense: A Diffractive Analysis. Qualitative inquiry, 20(6), 742-746. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414530257
  • St. Pierre, E. A., Giardina, M. D., & Denzin, N. K. (2011). Refusing Human Being in Humanist Qualitative Inquiry. In Qualitative Inquiry and Global Crises (1st ed., pp. 40–55). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315421612-4
  • Taguchi, H. L. (2012). A diffractive and Delusion approach to analysing interview data. Feminist Theory, 13(3), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700112456001

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