Rethinking research ‘use’: Reframing impact, engagement and activism with feminist new materialist, posthumanist and postqualitative research

This chapter explores research ‘use’ and proposes a variety of ways in which feminist new materialist, posthumanist and postqualitative research (FNMPHPQ) open a range of possibilities for considering research ‘use’ differently. It begins by outlining the problem of neoliberalism accounts of research, arguing that this is grounded in performative, competitive individualism which aims at narrowly-conceived and impoverished understandings. FNMPHPQ approaches counter this and the chapter identifies a range of recent examples which show how research use can come to matter differently. The chapter then considers examples from our own work and how, in our three very different ways, our FNMPHPQ detours are attempting to do research ‘use’ differently to reframe neoliberal ideas of impact, engagement and activism. These detours produce new possibilities for research use. They reach towards new ways of becoming-activist and illuminate how becoming-activist can help surface the submerged and entangled narratives of people, places and power. The chapter puts the case that FNMPHPQ approaches can open possibilities for epistemic justice and reorient research towards more affirmative futures.