Hello MACErs!
now we are all concentrating on our final project and I want to share with you a few thoughts on new creative methods for qualitative research. Most of us, in fact, are using qualitative research for the research project, and thanks to Catherine we had the chance to have many guest speakers that enable us to better understand how to collect and analyse our primary data.
The most interesting lecture of all, for me, was the one held by Alia Weston. I really enjoyed the way she explained the various ways to study and understand people and social reality through observation and other techniques that not only involve traditional methods, such as in-depth interviews and questionnaires, but most of all implicate new approaches that embrace narrative, storytelling and visual data through photography or video.
Of course these techniques are related to the nature of the project and need to match the final purpose of the research itself. Fortunately I will have the chance to approach my research using this type of research methodologies so as to compliment the concept and make it more interesting at the same time.
To get prepared I suggest a few books that might be of interest for those who, like me, are approaching their research in this direction.
Here’s a list of interesting material that can be useful:
Banks, Marcus (2001), Visual Methods in Social Research, London: Sage.
Boje, David (2001), Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research, London: Sage.
Brewer, John (2004), Ethnography, in: Cassell, Catherine & Symon, Gillian (Eds), Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, London: Sage.
Dowmunt, Tony (1980), Video with Young People, London: Inter-Action Inprint.
Edwards, David (2004), Art Therapy, London: Sage.
Emmison, Micheal & Smith Philip (2000), Researching the Visual: Images, Objects, contexts and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry, London: Sage.
Gabriel, Yiannis & Griffiths, Dorothy (2004), Stories in Organizational Research, in: Cassell, Catherine & Symon, Gillian (Eds), Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, London: Sage.
Harper, Douglas (2002), ‘Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation’. Visual Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. [ http://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/methods/harper.pdf ]
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene & Leavy, Patricia (Eds) (2006), Emergent Methods in Social Science, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Holzwarth, Peter & Maurer, Björn (2001), ‘Aesthetic Creativity, Reflexivity and the Play with Meaning: A VideoCulture Case Study’. Journal of Educational Media, Vol. 26, No. 3. Special Issue on VideoCulture, pp. 185- 202.
Lawrence, Elizabeth (1990), ‘Diverse perspectives: A photography project’, Multicultural Teaching, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 25–30.
Leavy, Patricia (2009), Method Meets Art: Arts-based Research practice, New York: Guilford Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945/2002), Phenomenology of Perception, London: Routledge.
Reissman, Cathrine (2008), Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Ritchie, Jane & Lewis, Jane (2003), Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers, London: Sage.
Silver, Rawley (2001), Art as Language: Access to Thoughts and Feelings Through Stimulus Drawings, London: Brunner-Routledge.
Stiles, David (2004), Pictorial Representation, in: Cassell, Catherine & Symon, Gillian (Eds), Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, London: Sage.
Good luck guys, and enjoy 🙂
Cora 