Affiliation:
1. University of North Carolina at Pembroke, USA
Abstract
In this paper, I consider some of the possibilities for what delinquent writing may produce for the field of qualitative inquiry. To do this, I ground this work in Foucault’s genealogy regarding the consolidation of sovereign and disciplinary powers, and repressive apparatus. Foucault theorizes that repressive apparatus necessarily produce delinquency, and this paper takes up this notion to explore how delinquency can be productive for qualitative writing. In doing so, I consider the dangers of delinquency becoming complicit in repressive apparatus and how delinquent writing can resist this tendency. I theorize that delinquency and delinquent work are constantly on the move and never complete as they exist always-already in response to repressive apparatus that are likewise always shifting in the name of sovereign and disciplinary powers. Ultimately, I explore what implications repression and delinquency may carry for research methods and methodologies in the field of qualitative inquiry.