ABSTRACT. Scholarship and research can be described as strategies that seek to simplify reality, which is one possible reason why reified binaries seem to cause problems in so many fields. Essentialism is associated with black-and-white thinking, philosophical imperialism and the inability to account for difference and diversity. The articles in this issue are multi-coloured and disparate, but each one has a detectable concern with situations caused in the world by essentialist thinking, including reified binaries. The articles showcase the rich results of thinking outside the square: despite – or perhaps because of – the variety of topics and author locations represented, they seem to belong together in this issue; most certainly they belong in this journal. pp. 7–8

doi:10.22381/KC6220181