“The knowable world is incomplete if seen from any one point of view, incoherent if seen from all points of view at once, and empty if seen from nowhere in particular. Given the choice between incompleteness, incoherence, and nothingness, I aim to stay on the move, and seek out and engage with, multiple points of view” (Shweder, Why Do Men Barbecue, 2003, p. 2).
Gabriel Velez and I developed this postmodern humanistic statement from Rick Shweder in a new article, titled "Manywheres: In Pursuit of Social Justice in Developmental Science" published in the journal Human Development.
The article can be accessed, here:
https://lnkd.in/dUhbyBRX
Gabe and I articulate an innovative framework - manywheres - and argue that it can advance the work of fostering youth-led change and progressive world-making. We first root psychological and development science in an applied framework of developing more just, harmonious, and tolerant social worlds.
We then introduce manywheres, a guiding framework of propositions of attending to the complexity and nuance of meaning-making across individuals, in pluralistic societies, without becoming lost in nihilism, relativism, or ethnocentric views of social justice.
This leads to the construction of a more holistic developmental lens considering the age-related, contextual, and internal factors that shape meaning-making individual trajectories and societal outcomes. Manywheres, a framework steeped in value pluralism, can thus structure thinking and research with an end goal of understanding the diversity of young people’s engagement, activism, and disconnection.
We end with mapping a research agenda applying these ideals, incorporating the methodological approaches that can be taken, with concrete examples ranging from #peacebuilding in post-conflict settings, #climateprotests, #racialdisparities, #artificialintelligence, #violence, and #mentalhealth.
The paper might be of interest to social scientists broadly, regardless of methodological focus, and psychologists in particular.
Awesome, Tina!! Looking forward to it! 🎉 Hope all is well!