Philosophy Disturbed: Reflections on moving between field and philosophy

In a number of accounts, field philosophy has been described as
providing freedom from disciplinary constraints. In this paper, however, I
suggest the importance of paying closer attention to the strength of
philosophy’s boundary policing and the consequences this might have for
those interested in the approach. Discussing field philosophy in terms of
disturbance, I highlight some of the difficulties and opportunities it produces.
In particular I focus on the labour involved in adopting new methods and
working in new sites of enquiry. I suggest that reconstituting the ‘philosopher’
outside of their traditional habitats is no simple task. Still, I argue that field
philosophers should lay claim to the boundary policing question ‘how is this
philosophy?’ in order to proliferate accounts of what philosophy is and can be,
with the hope that the discipline’s future might be turned more strongly
towards supporting diversity rather than defending purity.