Monsoon as method
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Date
Authors
Bremner, Lindsay
Cullen, Beth
Cane, Jonathan
Geros, Christina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage
Abstract
This paper is a reflective discussion of the research method developed by a small research team
over a 5-year period as it intra-acted with the south Asian monsoon in three south/southeast Asian
cities. It reflects on how the team’s practice was transformed from being research on or about the
monsoon as a discrete unit of analysis, to research in the monsoon and with its agential materiality.
The paper first outlines the theoretical resources from cultural geography, anthropology, feminist
theory, posthuman theory, and science and technology studies that the project drew from. After this
theoretical section, the paper then discusses the practical implications of the method and the two
emergent strands of research (‘weather matters’ and ‘construction matters’) that were followed in
Chennai, Dhaka, and Yangon. The final section of the paper reflects on the extension of the method
into the formatting of a book and an online exhibition. The paper concludes by arguing that what
the method offers to cultural, weather-based research in monsoonal and other climes, is a situated,
non-formulaic method that recognizes the affordances of the Earth’s agency, of matter and of other than-human lives for generating knowledge of and ways of being in changing weather-worlds.
Description
Keywords
Assemblage, Intra-locution, Monsoon, Situated knowledge, Weather, Weathering, Weather-world
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Bremner, L., Cullen, B., Cane, J. et al. 2024, 'Monsoon as method', Cultural geographies, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 249–270, doi : 10.1177/14744740231197814.