Indigenous Research and Romantic Nationalism

Abstract

In recent years, “indigenous research” and “indigenous methods” have become prominent themes in the general field of qualitative methodology. These ideas and their implications raise serious questions for the wider conduct of social research. We will outline some of those ideas, subjecting them to scrutiny, and ultimately using them to question the rise of Romanticism in contemporary social methodology. We develop these ideas to question the contemporary emphasis on the personal and the experiential in current methodological commentary.

Keywords

• indigenous research
• qualitative methodology
• romanticism
• local methods
• local traditions
• knowledge creation
• categories