The future of climate finance research
Abstract
This chapter introduces a new materialist approach to research, which typically employs qualitative data but differs from more conventional qualitative paradigms in that it is relational and performative. A relational/performative paradigm shifts our perspective from seeing a world made up of (reducible) things as 'is' to seeing a world that is open and made up primarily of relationships that are always 'in-becoming' and thereby foregrounds possibilities. A relational new materialist perspective includes all matter, human and nonhuman, and their relationships in a research assemblage. I discuss this approach to research through the lens of climate finance research to illustrate the types of questions a researcher could pose and therefore what a new materialist paradigm has to offer this vital area of research. The chapter seeks to offer curious researchers entry points into a new materialist paradigm; expand the possibilities of qualitative finance research, particularly regarding climate finance; and bring to finance research the emergent and relational nature of all material things.