Lugones’s Metaphor of “World Travelling” in Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

The metaphor of “world traveling” has been taken up by researchers engaged in narrative inquiry. This metaphor provides a reference point throughout the research process for navigating relational processes. In this article, we unpack how the metaphor of “world travelling” shapes the writing of research texts in narrative inquiry and the meaning making inherent in shared texts. We draw on a narrative inquiry focused on the experiences of men who are homeless in Japan, as well as a narrative inquiry focused on precariously housed women who are pregnant or engaged with early parenting and who use illicit substances. As we work with Lugones’s ideas, we see it is critical to engage in a collaborative process that is marked by a playful exchange of ideas and that pushes us to identify connections with others. At the same time, we work to create meaning; we need to challenge racial, social, political, and economic boundaries and social differences in ways that allow researchers and participants to locate themselves in relation to others. Engaging in this manner shows openness to multiple ways of sense making and to creating texts where expectations are broken. Representation requires the development of texts where we can “exercise double vision” and “create and cement relational identities.” These spaces of openness and multiplicity are always in motion and are marked by a sense of “dwelling,” “world travelling,” and “playfulness.”

Critical Narrative Inquiry: An Examination of a Methodological Approach

“…Narrative inquiry appeared in the educational field in 1990 through the work of Connelly and Clandinin with a central focus on lived experience (Clandinin et al, 2007). The quest for knowledge in this qualitative research methodology intends to advance understanding of the experiences of people across place and time (Dewart et al, 2019). Researchers are prompted to identify stories through elements of sociability, temporability, and place (Clandinin & Caine, 2008).…”

“…A description of sociality, temporality, and place acknowledges the lived experience of participants as the knowledge source. Sociality encompasses the personal and social conditions (Dewart et al, 2019). The personal conditions include hopes, aesthetics, feelings, and reactions, whereas the social conditions refer to the environment, surroundings forces, and existential conditions (Clandinin et al, 2007).…”

“…The personal conditions include hopes, aesthetics, feelings, and reactions, whereas the social conditions refer to the environment, surroundings forces, and existential conditions (Clandinin et al, 2007). Temporality remarks that stories are evolving based on the experience in a particular time period (Dewart et al, 2019). That means that events, people, and places always have transitions between past, present, and future conditions (Clandinin et al, 2007).…”

“…That means that events, people, and places always have transitions between past, present, and future conditions (Clandinin et al, 2007). Place is, the physical environment, where the experiences are unfolding over time (Dewart et al, 2019). The specificity of place represents an essential role in narrative inquiry with the reflection that events impact in each place (Clandinin et al, 2007).…”

Walking Alongside: Relational Research Spaces in Visual Narrative Inquiry

“…Defining worlds, Lugones (1987) stresses “for something to be a ‘world’ … it has to be inhabited by some flesh and blood people” (p. 9). Describing Lugones’ (1987) world travelling, Dewart et al (2020) suggest that world travelling “depends on context, setting, shared history, shared language, and understanding of the social norms” (p. 2). For those who do not exist comfortably within hegemonic norms (e.g., hetero- or cisnormativity), Lugones’ (1987, 2003) argues world travelling is an essential survival strategy 8 .…”