Abstract
This paper argues that the positionality of the practitioner-researcher often remains centered in the self-reflective question “Who am I?”, fixing identity at the core of a relational web. We propose shifting this inquiry toward “Who can I be?” and “Who can I be in relation?”, recognising identity as fluid, contextual, and co-constituted through relationships. The paper unfolds through a conversational method that unpacks the ongoing PhD research of the first author. The authors navigate this landscape of lived research and practice in dialogue with two simultaneously held identities - the Practitioner-Researcher and the Scholar-Provocateur. Drawing from decolonial praxis, we conceptualise a Relational Navigation System: a way of orienting oneself temporally and contextually within the living network of relationships one inhabits. Here, conversation itself becomes method, a site of inquiry and knowledge production, revealing how decentering the practitioner allows for a more responsive, plural, and relational practice of research.
Keywords
Positionality, Decoloniality, Relational Navigation System, Practice Based Research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1032
Citation
Balasubramanian, R., and Srivastav, S. (2026) A Researcher and a Guide Talk Into a Paper: A Dialogue on Being Many Things at Once, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1032
Creative Commons License
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Included in
A Researcher and a Guide Talk Into a Paper: A Dialogue on Being Many Things at Once
This paper argues that the positionality of the practitioner-researcher often remains centered in the self-reflective question “Who am I?”, fixing identity at the core of a relational web. We propose shifting this inquiry toward “Who can I be?” and “Who can I be in relation?”, recognising identity as fluid, contextual, and co-constituted through relationships. The paper unfolds through a conversational method that unpacks the ongoing PhD research of the first author. The authors navigate this landscape of lived research and practice in dialogue with two simultaneously held identities - the Practitioner-Researcher and the Scholar-Provocateur. Drawing from decolonial praxis, we conceptualise a Relational Navigation System: a way of orienting oneself temporally and contextually within the living network of relationships one inhabits. Here, conversation itself becomes method, a site of inquiry and knowledge production, revealing how decentering the practitioner allows for a more responsive, plural, and relational practice of research.