The Critical Posthumanities and Postqualitative Inquiry in Psychology

At the turn of the 21st century, after decades of resisting the quantitative imperative, qualitative psychology and the psychological humanities seemed to have found some respite. However, the sense of stability was soon disrupted by the posthuman and postqualitative critique of humanism and the conventional assumptions and practices of qualitative research. How have (qualitative) psychologists responded to this? For the most part, they have chosen to either sweep the ‘posts’ under the rug or to carelessly dismiss them as faddish folderol. This collection supports a more grounded response, not by persuading readers that ‘post inquiry’ is good and should be accepted, but by helping them evaluate its claims thoughtfully. This is one of the first collections to address questions such as:

• What is post qualitative inquiry and where did it come from?
• What does posthumanism mean for our understanding of ourselves as persons?
• What should we make of the ‘critical’ in critical posthumanisms?
• Are qualitative and postqualitative inquiries incommensurable?
• What might the ‘posts’ mean to phenomenology and ethnography?

This volume includes contributions from leading voices such as Elisabeth St.Pierre, Svend Brinkmann, and Vivienne Bozalek, as well as emerging scholars who were introduced to research in a period characterised by multiple competing paradigms. This book was originally published as a special issue of Qualitative Research in Psychology.

Javier Monforte is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sport at the University of València, Spain.

Brett Smith is a professor in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University, UK.