Social Research by Trust

Arguably, identarian and feminist studies seem to have influenced the change in the methodological perspective, particularly research in humanities and social sciences. This poses some challenges to the methodological protocols adopted by research in humanities and social sciences. However, the methodological change induced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic has given a different, if not decisive, twist to methodology that builds the process of producing knowledge, through research with an empirical thrust. One needs to account for the changes that have impacted the methodological perspectives.

The standpoint method arguably raised an independent methodological voice in the field of social research. Emerging from absences in scholarship anchored and associated with a universalist position, the standpoint method—leading to intellectual/theoretical consciousness—criticised this “universal” standpoint as inadequate at its best and completely ignorant of the specific reality at its worst.