In Other Words: Writing Research as Ethico-onto-epistemic Practice

Abstract

This paper aims to uncover the agential character of writing research in the light of the concept of ethico-onto-epistemology. Theoretically, it unpacks the debate around reflexivity and the performativity of theories and methods, underlining the active role of writing research accounts that do not just “capture” the world, but rather enact multiple worlds. This argument is developed with the support of empirical accounts belonging to an ethnographic study in a telecommunication company, which are informed by conceptual sensibilities from STS and Feminist Science Studies intended as two related yet distinct theoretical frameworks. I conclude by arguing that taking up the call for ethico-onto-epistemology when writing research accounts call us to trouble the character of writing as a neutral practice, and to grapple with the power of accounting for – thus producing – multiple realities that differ in terms of epistemological, ethical and political relations.