ABSTRACT
The first chapter draws out the landscape of thinking positions and experiences brought to the book by the author. It discusses how research and the struggle for radical social change relate in entangled, tensional and unpredictable co-productions of meaning. It is argued that collaborative analysis, which disturbs and resists mental and institutional frontiers, can create moments of human encounters that question conventional ideas about difference, norms, academic tradition and sense making. The framework of the book is outlined and this first chapter anticipates how the empirical material will be worked with through central analytical concepts related to communication and difference. In a genre of blurred writing, the chapter interweaves analytical concepts, personal experience, reflexivity, political values and detailed practical research moves which strike the tone of thinking of the book. This nomadic writing style allows many discussions and related topics to flow into and through each other while ‘walking’. The chapter allows the reader to become acquainted with the line of thinking which underpins the book as a whole.
