We, the Bodies Collective, work towards bringing the body back into prevalence within social science. We do this recognising that many social sciences, particularly psychology and related disciplines, have focused on the spoken or written word as the expression of the mind, which then neglects the body and its ways of communicating beyond, before and without the word.
The inaugural Game Changer, for the 2018 European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, hosted in Leuven Belgium, became a place of pushing at the boundaries and silence placed upon the material body – the corporeal site of intra-actions (Barad, 2007; 2014) and becomings (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987).
Within this nascent group of researchers, our concerns at exploring the body were varied, divergent and presented an exciting opportunity to flatten academic hierarchies through conversations and movements aimed at seeing, perhaps even appreciating, the corporeal body anew . Conversations continued between those privileged and resourced enough to attend ICQI in May 2018 and have woven their way through our continued time as a group. Each of our fields presented diffracting facets in which to seek knowledge on the body. Yet, one key philosophical tenant remained consistent: Our bodies are the first point of contact with another. In fact, our bodies are the relational entry point into knowing another (Merleau-Ponty, 1968, Gergen 2009). Each of us, within our own disciplines, have experienced how the body has not been privileged within varying Western academic discourses (Grosz, 1994; Young, 2006; 2008).
