Disrupting the representational limit of abductively-driven research: A problematization of the link between abduction and representational thought

Abstract

Abduction and abductively-driven research approaches have been foregrounded by researchers as a way to introduce new concepts, ideas and insights. This paper argues that while abduction allows for the introduction of new concepts, ideas and insights, abduction as articulated by many scholars is welded to representational thought, which stifles the emergence of the new. The key representational assumption in abduction is that abduction tends to be linked to a mental process that resides within an independent humanist subject. This paper posits that this limit of abduction can be disrupted by embracing a non-representational understanding of practices. This non-representational notion of practices will then serve as a transition to a Deleauzean and Guattarian (re)articulation of thought as becoming. In brief, when thought is (re)articulated as a becoming, it disrupts the key representational assumption and points towards enhancing the potential of abductively-driven research in asking new questions and research enactments, which in turn co-constitutes new realities for certain groups.