Pluriversal Readings of Emancipatory Engagements

Abstract

This volume brings together pluriversal readings of emancipatory approaches to community and other reflexive engagements. In so doing, the book recognises the confluences between critical peace psychology and other critically derived psychologies. As an intersected collection of chapters on emancipatory engagements, the volume evokes what Pelias (2004) terms the “methodology of the heart”, that is, the authors—conscious of the epistemic pitfalls inherent to detached expert formulaic pronouncements—are present in their work as embodied activist writers and reflexive analysts. Through their respective probing voices, the authors of these chapters occupy the interdiscursive realm of meaning and experience that interrogates what it means to engage in emancipatory work and build compassionate critical connections, while accompanying the subaltern through moments of destabilising dominant discourses and inscribing generative spaces. All of the contributors, without exception, locate themselves within their respective texts; they are sensitive to the traps of the narcissistic researcher-writer and yet astutely aware of the significance of positioning themselves as engaged subjects, immersed in the messiness and complexities of community and other reflexive engagements.