Introductory description

What are the limitations of traditional social research methods for allowing us to understand the social world?

This module is designed to extend and enhance students’ existing knowledge of social research methods. Where standard qualitative social research methods training tends to focus on using data-gathering instruments such as interviews, focus groups, ethnographic observations, and document analysis, this module considers emerging or more marginal bodies of sociological work which use or are influenced by creative and artistic practice and sensory engagement to gather, produce or analyse data sociologically. The module will draw on a range of examples of existing sociological work (or work at the boundaries of sociology) which engages with visual, theatrical, and embodied methods for collecting, producing and analysing data, and disseminating research findings. This understanding of research as in-process, and of the different facets of conducting research (and associated power relations) are central to the module. Students will carry out weekly applied research tasks to test out ideas from their reading, and produce weekly reflections on these tasks to inform their ongoing learning, class preparation and formally assessed work.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction to creative research methods: analysing, provoking, making, communicating, co-producing
2. Photo-voice
3. Photo elicitation
4. Audiovisual methods
5. Sensory perception
   READING WEEK
6. Walking and mapping
7. Theatre methods
8. Creating and co-creating
9. Analysing and communicating creatively

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Knowledge of a range of creative methods in qualitative social research, and examples of their application
• Advanced understanding of how principles of social research might be developed through non-traditional social research methods
• Systematic understanding of the principles, possibilities, and limitations of a range of creative social research methods
• Experience in using creative social research methods
• Ability to evaluate and learn from own and others’ creative research practice

Indicative reading list

Back, L (2007) The art of listening, Oxford: Berg.

Back, L and Puwar, N (eds) (2012) Live methods, Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

Barthes, R (1982) Camera Lucida, London: Vintage.

Bates, C and Rhys-Taylor, A (eds) (2017) Walking Through Social Research, Abingdon: Routledge.

Beck, J et al (2011) 'Delineating a spectrum of research-based theatre', Qualitative Inquiry, 17(8):687-700.

Berger, J (1972) Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin.

Boal, A (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed, London: Pluto.

Bull, M and Back, L (eds) The Auditory Culture Reader, Oxford: Berg.

Erel, E, Reynolds, T and Kaptani, E (2017) 'Participatory theatre for transformatory social research', Qualitative Research, 17(3):302-312.

Freire, P (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum.

Gunaratnam, Y (2013) Death and the Migrant, London: Bloomsbury.

Kara, H (2015) Creative research methods in the social sciences: a practical guide, Bristol: Policy Press.

Knowles, C and Sweetman, P (eds) (2004) Picturing the social landscape, London: Routledge.

Lambert, C (2018) The live art of sociology, Abingdon: Routledge.

Lury, C and Wakeford, N (eds) (2012) Inventive Methods, Abingdon: Routledge.

Mason, J and Davies, K (2009) 'Coming to our senses? A critical approach to sensory methodology', Qualitative Research, 9(5), 587-603.

Pink, S (2015) Doing Sensory Ethnography (2nd Ed), LA: Sage.

Puwar, N (2011) 'Noise of the Past: Spatial Interruptions of War, Nation, and Memory', The Senses and Society, 6(3):325-345

Rainford, J (2019) 'Confidence and the effectiveness of creative methods in qualitative interviews with adults', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(1):109-22.

Rhys-Taylor, A (2013) 'The essences of multiculture: a sensory exploration of an inner-city street market', Identities, 20(4):393-406.

Rogaly, B (2016) '"Don't show the play at the football ground, nobody will come!": the micro-sociality of co-produced research in an English provincial city', The Sociological Review, 64: 657-80.

Smith, L T (2012) Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples (2nd ed), London: Zed.

Journals: Visual Studies, Senses and Society, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Inquiry, Sociological Review

Research element

Learning creative research methods and methodologies (including reflection on ethics).
Application of learning through practical research tasks.

Interdisciplinary

Draws on learning from other disciplines including geography, theatre studies, visual arts.

Subject specific skills

Ability to understand principles of creative qualitative research methods and begin to apply them.
Ability to identify appropriate research methods and methodologies for specific research questions, including with a view to ethical implications.

Transferable skills

Ability to collect, understand and process complex qualitative data.
Ability to reflect on and learn from own professional practice.
Ability to communicate in written form, and to understand limits of text-based communication.