Framework · Knowledge & Power
Authority of Experience
A way to decide how lived experience and research or data should share authority when organizations make inclusion decisions.
← Back to the homepageAuthority of Experience asks who gets to define what counts as credible knowledge. It resists two easy answers: lived experience is not automatically universal, and data is not automatically neutral.
The tension
Evidence has more than one form.
Organizations can overcorrect in either direction. Experiential absolutism treats personal experience as sufficient proof for everyone. Empirical absolutism treats research and metrics as if they arrive without assumptions, blind spots, or power. Performative balance gives both a seat without asking which source should carry more weight in a specific decision.
The framework helps leaders make that weighting explicit so inclusion work can be both humane and accountable.
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