Hacking through academentia : autoethnography, data and social change

Abstract: The question of who may produce and own knowledge, under what conditions, is critically discussed in relation to research regulatory regimes and academic managerialism. The nature of researcher position and nature of researcher-researched encounters is discussed. Autoethnography is offered as one way of examining Self-Other relationships in doing field work. How to negotiate the relationship is examined in the context of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and the questions of essentialism and paradigm clash. The dominant ideology of data is questioned. Case studies of how (over-)regulation excludes unconventional science from its system of rewards illustrates the contradictions imposed by residues of positivism