Posthumanism and post-linguistic theory

When doing research, we use a base theory to provide a backbone for our methodology (our research philosophy, inquiry strategy, and design - big picture why and how) and our methods (our data collection, sampling and analysis tools). If we use some type of unifying theory it helps our decisions to align, making our data collection more consistent, more trustworthy, and potentially containing less bias (if we are undertaking qualitative research) and validity, reliability and generalisability (for quantitative projects).

I am currently trying to get my head around what post-linguistic theory is; which, I think - at this early stage - relates to the epistemology of posthumanism (Koivunen et al., 2021). So before I can understand post-linguistic theory, I first need to understand posthumanism. And - of course - before I can understand posthumanism, I first need to understand humanism. 

A humanist epistemology appears to value reason, and focuses on the humanity side, rather than the nonhuman, the 'other'. Humanism seems to make "a distinction between mind (rational, spiritual, essentially human) and body (unwieldy, worldly, essentially animal)" (Allen, 2023). So if humanism is "two legs better" (Orwell, 1945, p. 104), then post-humanism appears to be that "all animals are equal" (p. 11); mind and body both have value; that all living things have value. This is 'post' the age of enlightenment, where discovery is scientific, Western, and potentially "industrial, imperialist, and warlike" (de Vaujany et al., 2024, p. 3). 

Lamb and Higgins explain "the posthumanist question" as the "how and why we have come to think about humans in particular ways, with particular boundaries between humans and other animals, humans and artefacts, humans and nature" (2020, p. 350). Additionally, posthumanism can be thought of as "the end of a 'man-centred' universe" (de Vaujany et al., 2024, p. 2). 

Which brings us to post-linguistic theory; this too is a framework with pre-, present and post- elements (Andersson et al., 2018). Pre-linguistics is perhaps akin to beings without a sentient voice (babies, cells, etc); present is text and communication; and post-linguistics, or "post-linguistic propositional knowledge" - which I hope is the same thing - could be "a way of perceiving and expressing knowledge [aligned] with Goethe’s concept of the phenomena themselves being the theory" (Coghlan & Brydon-Miller, 2014, p. 332). Related to language, this is where we blend "discourse-oriented linguistics and pragmatics into affect studies", and we "re-introduc[e...] a linguistic model to a post-linguistic theory frame [... to help us] to understand affectivity as a form of meaning-making" (Koivunen et al., 2021, p. 646); and what I think that means is that we examine positive and/or negative emotions, story, conversation, and making sense of our how we, and our participants, react to those feelings. 

I get the feeling that post-linguistic theory is somehow a bit like the T S Eliot poem, Little Gidding, where "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, remembered gate, when the last of earth left to discover is that which was the beginning" (Gardner, 1985, p. 897). We come full circle, and know the inherent, "immanent meaning" of what we are examining (Andersson et al., 2018, p. 37).

However, I do not yet see how post-linguistic theory fits - or does not fit - with posthumanism. I can see a fit with action research, though. Ah well, I need to do more reading!

Sam

References:

Allen, P. (2023, September 3). What is Posthumanism?. Perlego. https://www.perlego.com/knowledge/study-guides/what-is-posthumanism/

Andersson, J., Garrison, J., & Östman, L. (2018). Chapter 2: Distributed Minds and Meanings in a Transactional World Without a Within: Embodiment and Creative Expression. In Empirical philosophical investigations in education and embodied experience (pp. 27-68). Palgrave Macmillan.

Coghlan, D., & Brydon-Miller, M. (Eds.). (2014). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research. SAGE Publications Ltd.

Gardner, H. (1985). The New Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1950. Oxford University Press.

Koivunen, A., Antti Kanner, A., Janicki, M., Harju, A., & Hokkanen, A., Mäkelä, E. (2021). 1PP 736 Emotive, evaluative, epistemic: A linguistic analysis of affectivity in news journalism. In the Proceedings of Communication and Trust: 8th European Communication Conference (p. 646). https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/7239636/ECREA_2021_Abstract_Book.pdf#page=604

Lamb, G., & Higgins, C. (2020). Chapter 16 - Posthumanism and Its Implications for Discourse Studies. In A. De Fina, A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies (pp. 350-370). Cambridge University Press.

Orwell, G. (1945). Animal Farm: A fairy story. Secker & Warburg.

de Vaujany, F.-X., Gherardi, S., & Silva, P. (Eds.). (2024). Organization Studies and Posthumanism: Towards a more-than-human world. Routledge.