Researching the assemblage of cultural diversity in Norway. Challenging simplistic research approaches

Abstract

This article’s point of departure is practicing an(other) methodology than those that are dominant within educational research in Norway. Dominant research can ‘rely on the authority and normativity of methods to produce knowledge devoid of critical reflection and contextual consideration’ (Koro-Ljungberg & Mazzei, 2012, p. 728). Koro-Lungberg (2012) calls this the politics of simplification (p. 809), which is powerful through its control of qualitative research. The authors try to poke holes in this scheme of representation regarding cultural diversity by installing themselves in agentic realist positions with a piece of data – a snapshot of an Internet Web page. To think otherwise about cultural diversity, the authors ‘thinkfeel’ (Lenz Taguchi & Palmer, in press) and are on the ‘lookout’ (Boutang, 2011) for events and transformative moments (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) around the folding of the assemblage of cultural diversity in Norway. Inspired by Lather (2012), we try ‘to live’ the data in new ways.