about

to go in quest means to look for something which one has, as yet, no particular experience; one can imagine what it will be like but whether one's picture is true or false will be known only when one has found it.—W. H. Auden, "The Quest Hero" (1961)

this blog / newsletter will be a record of the thinking and learning of a phd project looking at the challenges of collaboration across difference, in the context of making the UK food system more sustainable.

why "method quest"? well, a phd can be considered a quest, in line with the Auden quotation above. i have a love of (table-top and video) role-playing games. one of my favourite poems (also by Auden) is also called "The Quest".

really, it feels appropriate for now at least that i frame my phd as i am experiencing it, as a quest for something, and specifically, a quest for knowing and doing method(s)...

1. i have always been someone who thinks and works in quite intuitive, creative bursts, and never considered myself "methodical" in the common sense of the word, that is, "organized" or "systematic". or at least, never consciously or deliberately methodical. but i have a nagging sense that i do in fact have methods; that we have a more accurate understanding of being methodical when it can encompass subtle, bodied, emotional and intuitive practices; and that my work will be all the better if i can more clearly see and describe the how of my ways of knowing.
2. for the purposes of my PhD research, i want to identify, practice and innovate situated, participatory methods that are appropriate for my niche.
3. looking beyond myself, we are really in need of some effective methods! we are in a hot mess (and getting hotter) with the polycrisis, the Great Turning, sixth mass extinction, climate breakdown, creeping authoritarianism, however you name them: all these Great Issues Of Our Times. we really need to understand and practice different ways, different methods, for making the right kinds of change happen.