ABSTRACT
The theoretical and methodological limits of traditional research on and in marginalized cultures and communities requires greater critical analysis to demonstrate how otherness is created in normative frameworks. We draw upon the concept of difficult knowledge, and explore published literature grounded in the purpose of the book that pertains to the epistemological, ontological, and axiological implications of research that seeks to reduce inequalities and promote social justice. Whilst difficult knowledge has historically been applied to pedagogical matters in schooling, our purposeful use of the concept in researching marginalized groups is to foreground the difficulties associated with exclusionary knowledge frameworks, and to offer practicable alternatives for application in the design of research. The analysis traverses different conceptual research frameworks from varying fields—interpretative, critical, feminist, stand-point, Indigenous, and decolonizing—in demonstrating how situated cultural research can disrupt the ways that otherness takes shape. In recognizing that engaging in knowledge is a very messy endeavour, the core argument put forward is that instead of shying away from mess, researchers must embrace entanglement as an ethical imperative.
