Date/Time: Tuesday 25th February 2025, 3-5pm

Place: Violet Laidlaw Room, 6th floor, Chrystal Macmillan Building

Speakers: Katey Warran, Amy Chandler, Niamh Moore and Shaira Vadasaria

Theory in Sociology series conveners: Stephen Kemp and Isabelle Darmon

This seminar is part of the Theory in Sociology series, hosted by Critique.

Hierarchies of knowledge are founded upon theories about reality, with imagination, ideas, and traditions all part of the research and knowledge creation process (Alexander, 1945). But the theories connected to scientific thought and objectivity are given greater prominence in modern society, leading to what has been described as ‘the age of scientism’ (Blakely, 2020). Although science is a meaning-making system - a structure of beliefs and values – it is seldom regarded as one.

In the social sciences, researchers are sometimes faced with hierarchies of knowledge that prioritise objectivity and ‘scientific’ advancement. For example, this may be due to disciplinary preferences (e.g., the medical hierarchy of evidence), the policy landscape (e.g., evidence-based policymaking), or broader societal values (e.g., the search for objectivity). This may force researchers to conduct research that collects certain kinds of ‘evidence’ due to broader social and political pressures (e.g., funding bodies, policymakers), leading to a feeling of being restrained in an epistemological “straitjacket” (Macnaughton et al., 2005, p.338).

In recent years, partly in response to the dominance of positivist approaches, there has been a social movement of seeking to break down knowledge hierarchies. For example, Kara (2020) has argued that transformative research frameworks (e.g., participatory, community-based, feminist, queer, emancipatory or activist research) acknowledge the possibilities for transformation inherent in research, seeking to increase equity in the research process. This may entail pushing against traditional knowledge structures (e.g., academia; what counts as ‘research’; Smith 2012), seeking to decolonise methods (i.e., detaching research from imperialism and colonialism), and questioning the underlying assumptions and theories that prioritise certain approaches over others. Yet, seeking to make change in environments laden with long histories of systemic inequalities, such as within academia and policy, brings about many new theoretical, ethical and practical challenges. Essentially, we are asked to deliver equitable research within an academic system that continues to support many problematic assumptions about what counts as research and why. There is a huge gap between what the university performs in terms of what it would like to be (e.g., breaking down problematic knowledge hierarchies, wanting to democratise and decolonise knowledge) and its everyday neoliberal practices (e.g., maintaining prestige through traditional measures of ‘impact’ to attract fee-paying students).

In this session, we ask: are we at a gridlock regarding trying to break down knowledge hierarchies? We have a wealth of literature advocating for change, but many aspects of society and academia seem to be making it hard to make sustainable real-world change on the ground. Is this a question of structural obstacles to implementation, or is there also insufficient theorisation of this gap? Firstly, we will explore this question through four presentations from staff who have been working in sociology and other disciplines seeking to shift the way we think about knowledge (3-4pm). Next, we will explore both the opportunities and challenges of transformative frameworks, discussing together what the important next steps to working towards more equitable research are (4-5pm). Attendees are welcome to attend just the presentation part of the event if they wish. The event will be facilitated by Dr Katey Warran.

Tea/coffee/cakes provided!

Theory in Sociology: Deconstructing hierarchies of knowledge