This chapter offers a critique of the assumptions that continue to shape practices of recruitment and representation in social inquiry, signalling the impress that these seemingly fixed ideas have on our understanding and our capacity to change the status quo. The discussion evolves through the redress of ableist ideals that become absorbed in research, through common sense (Gramsci), undermining the work of social justice that scholarship can ignite, while maintaining distinctions between individuals and communities. Unpacking the political and sociological import of terms such as ‘hard to reach’ and ‘capability’ to inform the ways research is conceived can destabilise these distinctions. The narrative illustrates an expansion of post-human understandings toward a capability approach that migrates across different modalities for sense making, to continually reaffirm the role of meaningfully ethical work, to see, feel and experience multiplicities of being and becoming.