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    Health
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    ARTICLE
    Evicted from paradise: Methodological challenges of posthuman healthcare research
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    David A. Nicholls, Clair Hebron, and Shirley Chubb
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    © The Author(s) 2026
    https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593261442953open_in_new
    Publisher SAGE Publications
    ISSN 1363-4593
    eISSN 1461-7196
    Online April 21, 2026
    eLocator 13634593261442953
    Pages 17

    Abstract

    Interest in posthuman concepts and ideas, philosophies and theories has grown enormously over the last 25 years, and posthumanism is now one of the most vibrant and innovative frontiers in healthcare thinking. At its most basic, posthumanism is a philosophical approach that decentres the human and considers other non-human or more-than-human objects as equally important. But this description belies the many challenges posthumanism presents to the researcher. There are many competing approaches to consider, there is often opaque language to navigate, and there are many structural problems to overcome. In this paper we tackle three major methodological challenges: vitalism, or the question of what gives life to things; transcendence, and the substance problem; and correlation, or latent anthropocentrism. We consider how it might be possible to research with a process-based ontology in a world dominated by substance-based principles. And we conclude with four related recommendations: a focus on key principles, concept creation, deep reading and attention to ontological slippage, before reflecting on our own experiences researching walking for people living with persistent pain.
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  • Outline

    1. Abstract
    2. Introduction
    3. The Posthuman Walking Project
    4. A walk on the wild side
      1. Philosophies of affect, relation and entanglement
      2. Speculative realism
      3. Process philosophy
    5. Methodological implications of process philosophy
    6. Discussion
    7. ORCID iDs
    8. Funding
    9. Declaration of conflicting interests
    10. References
    11. Author biographies

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    subtitlesTable 1.

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    Pan-experientialism: Thought, feeling, experience, self-expression and self-actualisation involving all processes at all scalesHumanism/correlationism: Life as seen through human senses, humans as apex social actors, universal purpose bent towards human flourishing
    Creation: Life is genetic, creative evolution is an unrelenting experiment in the creation of the newDiscovery: Life is a pattern, a mystery to be solved through rigorous investigation
    Indeterminate: The creation of newness without defined limits. Not ‘absence’ but not distinct presence either. A process of becoming.Determinate: Being, defined, limited presence.
    Process: Reality is in constant motion, flux, never-ending flow, and becomingSubstance: Matter, things, objects, being and fixed identities are building blocks of reality
    Movement: Life is always moving, change demands interaction but flows are already aliveStasis: Life begins as inanimate static, fixed matter and is enlivened through interaction with other matter
    Immanence: Everything a process needs is fully presentTranscendence: Life relies on another ‘realm’, an unmoved mover, to enliven matter
    Duration: Duration is non-linear, rhizomatic and anarchic, the past folds into the present and the future is radically emptyTime: The arrow of time is linear and measurable and runs from the past to the future
    Guiding principles for posthuman process-based research.
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