BLOG POST #8: What does this TUCK article raise for you? How does it help you think about yourself and others?
This article reinforced my views on our communities. We can sit here and talk about others and why people don't do X vs Z. However, it is not until we are able to get to know one another and our lived experiences that we can truly recognize and understand the goals one may have for themselves. I really connected with the desire-based approach, I recognize that damaged-center research is at times necessary to fully understand someone, but it is when we get stuck there that it is not helpful. We need to be able to take that and carry it with us, to help us get to the other side of hope.
Tuck defines desire as being "an assemblage of experiences, ideas, and ideologies, both subversive and dominant, necessarily complicates our understanding of human agency, complicity, and resistance (pg. 420)." I could not have agreed more. If we are not able to understand where we come from and how it has gotten us to where we are today, then we struggle with moving from the past. At the same time, when we do work in our communities we can't just see them as broken, because they are not like that by choice, many times it is the damaged-centered research approach that has given this idea of the need to feel sorry for these communities, when in reality they are full of joy regardless of the situations they have encounter.
Eve Tuck's article also made me think about the program I work for and how in order to get students we tend to use language that is damaged-centered, but once the student is in the program then we begin to look at them from the desired-based research perspective in order to help them see who they can be. This is why I feel like desire-based approach has been something I have experienced for years now, but also because of my personality and who I try to be every day in the work that I do.
Hi! I really like what you said about not staying stuck in the damage. It’s so true that our communities hold so much joy and strength even through struggle. I love how you connected it to Tuck’s idea of desire it’s about seeing people for their wholeness, not just their pain
ReplyDeleteI came here to say what milary said: "but it is when we get stuck there that it is not helpful." This is a powerful way to think about the issues Tuck raises.
ReplyDeleteHi, Frangely! Although I wholeheartedly agreed with like everything you've said, it was where you said both of the following quotes "it is not until we are able to get to know one another and our lived experiences that we can truly recognize and understand the goals one may have for themselves" and "we begin to look at them from the desire-based research perspective in order to help them see who they can be" that resonated the most.
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