Radical Methodologies Research Group

In collaboration with colleagues Ben Sweeting and Tom Ainsworth, I founded and co-led the Radical Methodologies Research Group (RaM) at the University of Brighton, Radical Methodologies was a research group exploring counter-conventional approaches to research and practice across varied contexts and disciplines. The group’s activities supported the development of epistemologically sensitive approaches to situations characterised by complexity, conflicting values, and uncertain boundaries.

Responding to the systemic complexity of contemporary challenges, the group foregrounded questions of methodology as central to research and practice. At the time, methodological discussions were often reduced to selecting between established methods and techniques. The work of RaM sought to question the roots of methodological assumptions (radical—from the Latin radix, meaning root) and to promote exchange between discourses frequently separated by institutional, disciplinary, and departmental structures.

RaM hosted regular events that facilitated the exchange of methodological insight among researchers and practitioners, while maintaining strong connections with the university’s doctoral and postgraduate taught community. Members of the group also developed and sustained collaborative partnerships with external individuals and organisations. Key areas of focus included feminisms, radical pedagogies, cybernetics, radical constructivism, design activism, meta-design, radical positions in ethics, design research and the philosophy of science, and trans- and post-disciplinary perspectives.