The Oxford Handbook of Grounded and Engaged Normative Theory

The Oxford Handbook of Grounded and Engaged Normative Theory introduces readers to this burgeoning field of theory and methodology by exploring a range of empirical research practices that center lived experience to develop normative arguments. Theorists who work in this way demonstrate a commitment to expanding thinking about political theory to include those who have a stake in the concepts being studied. They consider the meanings that people make of their own experiences, political context, and histories in the struggle to be recognized by oppressors with epistemic authority. Undoing these histories depends on a commitment to epistemic inclusion, that is, a commitment to look for and attend to modes of knowing and sources of knowledge that are otherwise marginalized by the politics of knowledge or the norms of the discipline.

In the last decade, grounded and engaged normative theory has coalesced into a distinctive approach in political science. This Handbook offers a cohesive overview of the field's principles, origins, methodologies, substantive lines of inquiry, and applications. Contributors to the volume enrich theoretical and methodological discussions with chapters full of examples of how the authors themselves have done the work. By laying out multiple theoretical starting points and demonstrating diverse methodological approaches, this volume helps both practitioners and students to better understand what they can learn from and do in this dynamic field.