IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i6p354-d1671091.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Writing Inquiry in a Post-Truth World: An Essay in Voice, Method, and Meaning

Author

Listed:
  • Jacqueline Fendt

    (JB Say Institute of Entrepreneurship, ESCP Business School, 75011 Paris, France)

Abstract

In the wake of post-truth politics, neo-oral media, and epistemic fragmentation, qualitative researchers face intensified pressure to justify the legitimacy of our methods. This essay explores the idea that writing itself can be a form of research—not merely an act of representation, but an epistemic, institutional, and affective method. Structured in two voices—one stylized and poetic, the other scholarly and conceptual—the piece moves through five acts to examine writing as a form of border-crossing. It argues that voice-rich, situated writing is not indulgent; it is a way of thinking, navigating complexity, and holding space for uncertainty. Drawing on traditions of performative autoethnography, collective biography, data feminism, and more-than-human inquiry, the essay considers how writing can generate insight, foster civic resonance, and resist epistemic conformity. A heuristic table offers readers practical entry points for approaching writing as method. This essay is for those moments when something in the sentence feels off, but we write it anyway. It asks what becomes possible when we write not to comply, but to inquire.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacqueline Fendt, 2025. "Writing Inquiry in a Post-Truth World: An Essay in Voice, Method, and Meaning," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-15, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:354-:d:1671091
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/6/354/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/6/354/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:354-:d:1671091. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.