In this essay, we consider the emergence of the concept of creative-relational inquiry (C-RI). We want to push further at the engagement between the creative, the relational, and the hyphen that binds them, and how it might provide a nuanced effort to problematize, and provide alternatives for, taken-for-granted assumptions concerning research and research practices. We work with C-RI as a concept and/or concept-as-methodology, and consider explorations and themes developed by the authors in this special issue as they also mobilize C-RI. We develop a conversation about our understanding and use of C-RI in our respective disciplines.

Merit is often considered to be a neutral and therefore fair way to judge quality. Through soliloquy and graphics, this essay deconstructs and interrogates the definition of merit, revealing the ways that it is tied to standardization and dominant knowledge.

In the life of Søren A. Kierkegaard “the instant” had two distinct meanings. The first use of the phrase “the instant” is the point of intersection of time and eternity. It is the split second of decision, and the flash of a personal revolutionizing vision: a decisive “glint of an eye” to live in the existential moment. However, The Instant was also the title of a broadsheet Kierkegaard published at the end of his life that directly attacked “Christendom” and the idea of a Christian Nation. Through a layered account using narrative vignettes, I examine how “instants” and Kierkegaard's The Instant impacted my ideas of identity, community, and Christianity, leading me to a place of exile.