Assuming Power in New Forms: Learning to Feel ‘With the Other’ in Decolonial Research

The chapter aims to contribute to the important endeavour of decolonising Disaster Risk Studies, and more broadly, Development Studies, by focusing on the researcher and how they (and therefore the knowledge they produce) change with and through the emotions embedded in the research process (Dauder and Trejo, 2020). Through a series of individual narratives, we explore how the researcher's multiplicity of positionalities are transformed by the research process in its circular relationship with emotions that emerge and, in turn, inform it. In doing so, we recognise the plural forms of knowledge production (Escobar, 2003) that transcend the realm of 'thinking' to acknowledge ethical, emotional and relational commitments in the research process (Cahill 2007b). We argue the this is a step towards both admitting vulnerability and assuming power and knowledge in new forms, while also challenging dualisms often present in Western thinking and their associated hierarchies and hegemonies (Dauder and Trejo 2021; Cahill 2007b).