Re-enchanting the research encounter with psychosocial group analysis, supervision and reflective journalling

The call to re-enchant research is both a theoretical and methodological provocation that transcends disciplines. Drawing on concepts of re-enchantment from different traditions, this article examines how psychosocial methods – in particular, the ‘Many Minds’ method of group analysis – can foster a research praxis that foregrounds interconnectedness and care. As an interdisciplinary researcher new to psychosocial inquiry, I reflect on my use of Many Minds – in conjunction with supervision and reflective journalling – within a qualitative interview-based study about women’s farming journeys. Considering both the affordances and challenges of this approach, I explore how learning to use feelings as an entry point in analysis can enable ways of knowing and open up lines of enquiry that are new to activist research on alternative farming. Through worked examples, I demonstrate how links between the micro-level of the vignette and the macro-level of theory can be established, while maintaining the sense of connection that can be lost through generalisation. In the spirit of ecofeminist scholarship, I argue for re-enchanting research as a strategy of resistance – one that creates space for solidarity, care and collective meaning-making in the production of formal academic knowledge. Through this praxis, I argue that a specific kind of knowledge emerges which makes sense of the affective turn within problem-focused fields.