Deleuze, Concept Formation, and the Habit of Shorthand Inquiry

Informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical sense of the concept, this article challenges the tendency to desire for, rationalize, and use qualitative research methodology as a day-to-day concept—a readymade habit that gets legitimized as a form of shorthand for the experience of thinking and doing methodological work. Specifically, this article purposes to (a) provide an orientation to both everyday and philosophical concepts; (b) consider the distinct usage and interplay of these conceptual practices in relation to qualitative research methodology; (c) introduce and discuss the three ages of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical sense of the concept (i.e., the encyclopedia, pedagogical, and commercial professional training) as a means to encounter, think, and do research methodology as a problematic form; and (d) draw on personal memory and existing research and theory, as well as the performative sculptures of Charles Garoian, as a means to activate research methodology as a conceptual practice, one that must be continually created.