The The Visitor’s Hut: An Integrative Methodology

Abstract

International collaborative projects can export inequalities and power dynamics across borders. The Visitor’s Hut offers transformative possibilities in knowledge recovery that advance other ways of knowing through its active, other-seeking dialogic approach. Visiting prioritizes more equitable and community-grounded ways to mitigate power imbalances in international design research, where the methodology can become the site for repair by negotiating and translating, through design. In this paper, I showcase the methodology, first theorized in my PhD thesis and further put into practice through research on weaving ecologies in Myanmar, illustrating how knowledge is dynamic, created alongside others in a shared third space between cultures, languages, and people. This ongoing decolonization discussion invites us, as academic researchers, scholars, and practitioners, to actively reflect upon ‘me’, ‘us’, and ‘them’ within different temporal dimensions, remote relations, and the increasing use of technology.

Keywords

• decolonizing design
• community-based action research
• nomadic intersubjectivity
• visiting
• radical ethics