Title: "Human Meaning Orientation Theory: A Ground-Up Paradigm for Redefining Meaning, Method, and Power in Global Research"

Abstract (English)

This paper introduces Human Meaning Orientation Theory (HMOT) as a foundational, human-centric paradigm for reconfiguring the relationships among meaning, method, and power in the context of global research. As the world transitions into a multipolar and culturally plural era, dominant frameworks—primarily shaped by Euro-American intellectual traditions—are increasingly insufficient for understanding the complexity and diversity of human experience. HMOT offers a timely and transformative alternative: a ground-up, meaning-based approach that foregrounds the existential and symbolic life of humans as the starting point of knowledge production.

HMOT begins with a radical proposition: that humans orient themselves through meaning before engaging with economic, political, or institutional systems. Meaning is not a by-product of material life but its precondition. This orientation is neither universal nor monolithic; it is shaped and reshaped through dynamic interactions between humans and their ecological, cultural, and spiritual environments. To truly understand the world, researchers must center this meaning-making process as primary.

A defining contribution of HMOT is its classification of humans into five core meaning orientations: Meaning Seekers, Meaning Givers, Meaning Receivers, Meaning Keepers, and Meaning Makers. These are not fixed identities but existential stances that cut across familial, social, economic, political, cultural, and ethnic boundaries. Meaning Seekers pursue existential depth and clarity. Meaning Givers transmit frameworks, narratives, or belief systems. Meaning Receivers internalize offered meanings and adapt them in lived contexts. Meaning Keepers conserve and protect symbolic and cultural heritages. Meaning Makers, finally, generate new meanings through critical reflection, creativity, or visionary transformation. This pluralistic typology invites researchers to view humans not as passive subjects of study, but as active constructors of their realities.

By decentering extractive, top-down methodologies, HMOT challenges the presumed neutrality of mainstream research practices that often ignore or override local systems of meaning. It advocates for epistemic humility and methodological pluralism, where engagement with the meaning worlds of others becomes an ethical and dialogical process. In doing so, HMOT aligns with and advances the goals of decolonizing methodologies, pluriversal knowledge frameworks, and critical indigenous scholarship.

This paper concludes by illustrating how HMOT can be applied to rethink social transformation, policy-making, intercultural engagement, and collaborative inquiry. More than a theory, Human Meaning Orientation Theory proposes a reorientation: from power over subjects to partnership with meaning-bearers, and from method as control to method as co-creation.