Dismantling the master's house: Epistemological tensions and revelatory interventions for reimagining a transformational family science

Abstract

Using Audre Lorde's The Master's Tools as an epistemic guide, we propose two practice interventions for family science (FS) transformative praxes. The first, inspired by the thought of philosopher Charles Mills, challenges FS practitioners (research, practice, and policy) to explore differences in peripheral and positivist & post-positivist (P&PP) ideologies responsible for differences in beliefs regarding the salience or non-salience of power differentials within FS. The second, inspired by the thought of philosopher Rudolph Carnap, encourages FS practitioners to consider differences in peripheral and P&PP practitioners' understandings of what FS is at its core, and the beliefs and actions guided by their divergent core understandings. Both revelatory practices are intended to transform FS in such a way that its praxes are informed by these ways of practicing, and so that embodied understandings of the importance of pursuing anti-racist and social justice objectives within FS become manifest.

Transformational family science: Praxis, possibility, and promise

“…To pursue social justice and anti-racist projects as a discipline, we must engage an embodied epistemic praxis (J. Jones et al, 2022) and begin to think about transformative praxis in at least two ways: first, in the practice of knowledge generation, and second, in what we seek to inquire or theorize about. Both are implicated in what we may seek to transform.…”

“…This dialogic process surfaces asymmetries in institutional power by bringing to practitioners' awareness and acknowledgment of epistemological tensions and contradictions that provide a path through which positivist/post-positivist and peripheral practitioners can re-imagine family science praxes via a form of practicing that embeds practicing within praxes, thereby wedding scientific truth and social justice aims (J. Jones et al, 2022).…”

“…With global racial protests as a frame, the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) invited submissions for a series of special issues on the theme: Transformative Family Scholarship: Theory, Practice, and Research at the Intersection of Families, Race, and Social Justice (NCFR, 2021). To pursue social justice and anti‐racist projects as a discipline, we must engage an embodied epistemic praxis (J. Jones et al, 2022) and begin to think about transformative praxis in at least two ways: first, in the practice of knowledge generation, and second, in what we seek to inquire or theorize about. Both are implicated in what we may seek to transform.…”

“…In Dismantling the master's house: Epistemological tensions and revelatory interventions for reimagining a transformational family science ( this issue ), we propose an epistemic transformational praxis that surfaces the dualities and tensions of reality and science, as well as the discourses of fate and change, such that they are amendable to transformation (J. Jones et al, 2022). In this paper, we turn to the promise of transformational praxis for family science.…”

“…In developing and implementing praxes—be it knowledge production or its translational application—to support and sustain what is just, we must always ask, “What and whose knowledges are activated and listened to? Who is empowered to participate in epistemic transformation, and in whose interest is transformation carried out?” We advance a transformational family science that places “engaged scholarship in service to contemporary social justice projects” (Collins, 2012, p. 22) through practices that (a) build with epistemological and paradigmatic stances of peripherals (i.e., individuals, groups, and communities that have been marginalized, subjugated, or silenced within disciplinary hegemonies; see J. Jones et al, 2022); (b) infuse an ethic of reflexivity, accountability, and responsibility in the pursuit of knowledge claims and their validation; and (c) engage a critical interrogation of difference and power relations, and the disruption of systemic and structural inequalities in which they are aligned (see Figure 1). Through the practices proposed, practitioners (i.e., researchers, service practitioners, and policy makers) uncover meanings and power relations bound to social categories, social identities (and difference), and the proximal and distal ways structured inequalities (i.e., social inequalities or disparities that adhere to institutional structures, including ideologies, policies, laws, practices, and systems of social stratification) impact families and their members.…”