The Subjective and Experiential in Research and Communication

This article introduces the creative research methodology and approaches that I use in place based constructive design research, on my farm in the peri-urban green wedge of Melbourne. It discusses the enmeshment of personal experience and emotion with my research work and the place where it is situated, contrasting this with a past or 'other' view that academic research can be ruly objective and without bias.

I discuss a situation when my research and activism intersected. When a cleanfill (nominally excavated construction soil) tip opened in the immediate environs of my farm and community, I utilised techniques drawn from my research and tools from my academic context, contributing towards the closure of the tip and a change in planning policy.

The piece finishes by looking at how the the "deep, local, and specific" might actually hold the power for transformation. It touches on creative writing by Robert Macfarlane and Amitav Ghosh, considering how first person experience (in novels or creative non fiction) might allow people to connect emotionally and meaningfully with problems that seem otherwise outside their sphere of understanding and influence.