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Short abstract:

Sustainable futures are said to be ontologically pluriversal. We propose a 3-year research project "How can the universe be shifted towards a pluriverse?" and comprehensively discuss its research design. We elaborate on the distinct research methodologies/methods of each research phase.

Long abstract:

Sustainable futures are said to be pluriversal, i.e. drawing on ontological pluralism. Acknowledging the value and potential of diverse ways of being, thinking and knowing, a pluriverse is made of a multiplicity of mutually entangled and co-constituting but distinct ‘worlds’. We propose a 3-year research project "How can the universe (as a world in which just one ontology is allowed) be shifted and articulated towards a pluriverse, as to foster sustainable living?" and comprehensively discuss its research design. We elaborate on the distinct research methodologies and methods of each research phase: first, asking "What if the pluriverse would be seriously integrated into Sustainability Transitions Research?", we discuss the (in)compatibilities, challenges and potentialities of analytical-methodological integration of, i.a. the other-than-human, into an academic field build on different onto-epistemological affirmations ; second, asking "Where in the global North can threads for a pluriverse be found?", we discuss our operationalisation of an onto-epistemological, relational-procedural and non-dualistic research methodology in our empirical investigation of two community garden projects in Belgium that enable uncovering alternative ways of being, knowing and relating and analyse both the gardeners’ as our own researchers’ relation to, in- and exclusion of other-than-humans in our production of knowledge; third, asking "How can a pluriverse be fostered and stimulated?", we examine our research framework based on experimental and speculative fabulation techniques (i.a. walking methods) with students and stakeholders in a Belgian city, enabling opening up space for the emergence, creation and sparkling of transformative collective imaginations towards more sustainable worlds.