What is Creative Research?
Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide
Helen Kara
Kara, H (2015) Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide. Bristol: Policy Press
- Methodology and Method
‘Methodology is ‘a contextual framework’ (Grierson and Brearley 2009:5)’
‘Methods are the tools that researchers use to gather and analyse data’
p.4
- Grounded Theory
‘Grounded theory, devised by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967, is a method in which theory is developed as data is gathered and analysed.’
p.4
Reminds me of bell hooks on theory
- Research as a human activity and not neutral
‘Research is a complex human activity. Historically, research was viewed as a process in which experiments were conducted in conditions where all confounding variables had been eliminated and the researcher was a neutral agent who did not influence findings. Now it is readily recognised that this is only one possible view of research , and there are many others. For example, some kinds of research are now seen context dependent, multifaceted endeavours in which a variety of people have influence over process and its outcome.’
p.13
- Bricolage
Technique ‘combining qualitative methods’
‘From a French word meaning to make something using whatever materials are to hand. In research terms, this means drawing on theory from any discipline or disciplines, using a combination of data-gathering methods and analytic techniques and taking a similarly eclectic approach to the presentation and dissemination of research (Kincheloe 2005: 323-4)’
p. 27
Annette Markham – Remix
Generate, Play, Borrow, Move, Interrogate
‘The concept of remix highlights activities that are not often discussed as a part of method and may not be noticed, such as using serendipity, playing with different perspectives, generating partial renderings, moving through multiple variations, borrowing from disparate and perhaps disjunctive concepts, and so forth.’ (Markham 2013a:65)
p. 28
Reminds me of Susan Sontag in the intro of ‘Notes on Camp’
Mobility, Flexibility
- Objectivity – Subjectivity
‘The identity and context of both researchers and participants was central to the research process (Ryan-Flood and Gill 2010: 4-5)’
‘An intersectional approach. . .aims to accept and reflect the complexity of identity and examine the relationships between different aspects of identity and their implications for power relations (Frost and Eliachaoff 2010: 60)’
p.40
- Autoethnography
‘An approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze personal experience in order to understand cultural experience.’ (Ellis, Adams and Bochner 2011: 1)
- Ethics in arts-based research
Arts-based research requires a dual ethic: research ethics’ and ‘the ethics of authenticity’ (Parker 2004: 70-1; Leavy 2009: 151)
p.49
‘People may recognise authenticity by internal factors which are harder to describe: the experience of artwork chimes with existing cognitive and emotional knowledge to create a resonance, a feeling of rightness. Of course, not everyone will experience an artwork in the same way, which is a potential problem for arts-based research. But if enough people can reach a similar understanding through discussing and considering their individual responses in the process of creating research, then arts based research may be deemed authentic. (Clark, Holland and Ward 2012: 40)
p.50
- Openness, Imagination, Uncertainty, Soul, Wonder, Reverie
Contemplative openness to new meanings (Galvin and Todres 2012: 114)
‘Empathic imagination’ to integrate ‘the head, hand and heart’ and thereby avoid ‘the excessive compartmentalisation of attention to specialised tasks (Galvin and Todres 2012: 116-117)
Keats ‘negative capability’
‘the ability to be comfortable with uncertainty which.. will enable researchers to find new meanings (Romanyshyn 2013: 149)
‘Research with soul in mind.’ (Romanyshyn 2013: 149) that is a more holistic and experiential discipline than traditional research
Akin to wonder (Hansen 2012: 3) and reverie (Duxbury 2009: 56)
p.56
- Criteria for arts-based research
Darquise Lafreniere and Susan Cox
1.Appropriateness – is an arts-based method an appropriate way to address the research question?
2.Clarity – is it clear how the arts-based method has been used , and how it helps the research?
3. Reliability – are the researcher’s interpretations verifiably rooted in the data?
Rigour – how effective and trustworthy were the data gathering and analysis processes? To what extent has the research question been answered?
pp.70-71
- Reflexivity
Related to reflective practice
‘Involves practitioners taking a step back to think about what they know about their work and how they know that (Taylor and White 2000: 201) with ‘a critical learning perspective’ (Barnes and Cotterell 2012a: 231)’
‘Reflexivity is also increasingly used by creative arts practitioners, for whom it ‘validates their intuitive instinct within a framework of reflective enquiry’ (Candy 2011: 44)’
How do I define my identity? How does that affect my research practice?
What are my values and beliefs, and how are they operating in my research work?
Which of my biases and assumptions are relevant here and how are they affecting my research?
What impact do my emotional responses have on my research?
What effect has this research had on my relationship with others? What effect in turn, has this had on my research? What about relationships between other relevant people?
Am I being as honest and transparent as possible about all these factors in presenting my research?
p.72
Links to positionality statement from ILT Unit
- Complexity
Traditional research methods are ‘designed to manage and contain complexity by seeking to control, limit and even deny ambiguity’ (Haseman and Mafe 2009: 117) conversely, creative reflexive practice acknowledge and respects complexity.
p.73
- Reflexive Research
Researchers using their own sensory and emotional experience as data
Includes a range of overlapping methods such as embodied research and autoethnography
pp.78-79
- Solicited Diaries
p. 81
- Arts Based Data Analysis Journals
p.129
Links to Sheila Hicks Minimes