Comments for Relational Poverty Blog

Comment on Engaging the Public in Poverty Knowledge Research by Kidan

Kidan — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:48:07 +0000

Hi Valerie, thanks for the comment. I agree with promoting an understanding of the scientific method and writing. First, I think it’s a great idea you have to promote this at all levels of educational instruction which would probably make it less intimidating! Academic writing can be so intimidating and hard to understand. I think that goes hand in hand with making the academic intellectualism more approachable. If people have a general grasp of research, they are definitely less likely to read an academic article that potentially misuses data and a lot more likely to read it, call out the mishaps, question the research, maybe write a response, and ultimately, engage in a conversation with the research which is the point!

Comment on Engaging the Public in Poverty Knowledge Research by Valerie

Valerie — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:29:15 +0000

Kidan, I hope you’re right that this would be effective, because I agree academics should be doing all the things you mention. Unfortunately, it seems as though people grab statistics out of context that fit the view they’ve already formed. Some additional answers lie with promoting understanding of the scientific method at all levels of education and integrating writing instruction into education in research disciplines. Having read plenty of horrendous neuroscience and psychology primary articles in my time, I tend to think that academic writing is more a reflection of bad writing in general rather than deliberate obfuscation. In any case, you’ve made a lot of good and necessary points here!

Comment on Acknowledging, unlearning and relearning poverty knowledge by Isaac Rivera

Isaac Rivera — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 19:02:44 +0000

Hi Elyse,

Thank you for your post on this matter. This is a brilliant and timely post, that really challenges readers pre assumptions on the discourse of poverty. Viewing poverty relationally and through the various power structures that control the discourse, is something that I really appreciate. Where would you put this post, under the context of privileging knowledge over the “other”? I really think that this could lead to a much bigger project. Do you plan on expanding upon this post?

Isaac

Comment on Acknowledging, unlearning and relearning poverty knowledge by RPN

RPN — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 20:11:19 +0000

Elyse, this is a very effective post because it really engages the reader as a whole person. It engages with knowing as a reflexive process, rather than as a fact. This is vital for moving your readers into self-interrogation. I appreciate the accessibility of your writing and the personal register in which you model the work that you hope can happen.
In addition to Sarah’s question to you, I wonder if you can also push on the moments or situations that move you, or someone else into new realizations. When, where and how does this process take place? — Vicky Lawson, lawson@uw.edu

Comment on Acknowledging, unlearning and relearning poverty knowledge by RPN

RPN — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 20:10:52 +0000

Elyse, your step-wise engagement/re-working of that series of statement re: poverty is a really effective strategy in this piece. It makes visible a process of reworking, begins to model the reflexivity that may prompt new insights. As I was reading through the first reworked list, the negated statements, I thought it would be really interesting to ask readers to reflect on their own internal gut reactions to reading these statements that run orthogonal to normative poverty discourse. Both having *and* recognizing these reactions – unease, confusion, sense of wrong-ness, whatever – seem a central dimension in un/re-learning, because it may be what prompts people to ask something new. I wonder whether you have any thoughts on conceptual resources that help us think this latter moment: when/where/why people shift from reflection/the unease of reflection to asking something new. That is, I wonder how we get from the more personal/individual reflexivities that you center here, to a process of re-learning that is social / relational. This has been a sticking point for Vicky and I in our use of the encounter literature and our reading of our recent empirics. When/where/why do individual insights and reflexivities become social / relational in ways that lay the groundwork for alliance and action. That is, what conceptual frameworks help us think the transition from individual asking something new to social beings doing something new? This is a persistent question for us going forward. — Sarah Elwood, selwood@uw.edu