For this research I will be using combinations of poetic and performative inquiry to analyse my field notes and transcripts from participant interviews. This means that participant quotes and observations will be arranged in the form of data poems and dramatic scripts, with a view to using these as a way to disseminate findings for Phase Two of the Creative Club. This page provides a brief introduction to what these modes of inquiry might look like in practice.
I had in mind writing sociologies which displayed how meaning was constructed, and which were helpful to people, and not boring.
Laurel Richardson
Poetic inquiry can encompass many different forms and approaches. Sometimes the poetry is researcher-voiced, as a way to make sense of data from fieldwork observations. Sometimes the poetry is participant-voiced, using direct quotes from informants, which are then arranged in a poetic way.
Monica Prendergast (2009) gives a comprehensive review of poetic inquiry as method. To synthesise her findings, she wrote a poem entitled “Poetic Inquiry Is…”. This poem is a short and accessible introduction to the intent and purpose of poetic inquiry.
To read the poem, click here.
Fernández-Giménez, Jennings and Wilmer (2019) have written a series of brief case studies, showing how poetry has been used as a research method in natural resource science. They give examples of researcher-voiced and participant-voiced approaches.
To read about the case studies, click here.
Read my poem below, which provides an example of literature-voiced poetry. Here I use found text from the UKRI Cross Research Council Responsive Mode Pilot Scheme to express recent ideas about interdisciplinarity.
Unlock
disruptive
reciprocity
unexpected
ideas changed together
no clear ‘lead’
only each other.
I believe that dramatic action is the baseline for interpreting what people say and do. People act on the world, we don’t just move along with it.
H. Lloyd Goodhall
There are many ethnographers who turn their fieldnotes and interview transcripts into dramatic scripts, which may or may not be realised as a live performance. This approach is sometimes referred to as ‘ethnodrama’ or ‘ethnotheatre’.
Some performances involve the research participants as the performers, whilst other productions use professional actors to enact the ethnodrama.
To read about a case-study, which uses ethnodrama as a research method, click here.
Fernández-Giménez, M.E., Jennings, L.B. and Wilmer, H. (2019) ‘Poetic Inquiry as Research and Engagement Method in Natural Resource Science’, Society and Natural Resources, 32(10), pp. 1080-1091. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2018.1486493.
Goodhall, H. L. (2000) Writing the New Ethnography. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press (quote from p. 116). Available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=external-identifier%3A%22urn%3Aoclc%3Arecord%3A1330869116%22 (Accessed: 22 July 2024).
Prendergast, M. (2009) “Poem Is What?” Poetic Inquiry in Qualitative Social Science Research’, International Review of Qualitative Research, 1(4), pp. 541 – 568. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2009.1.4.541.
Richardson, L. (1993) ‘Poetics, Dramatics, and Transgressive Validity: The Case of the Skipped Line’, Sociological Quarterly 34(4), pp. 695 – 710 (quote from p. 697). Avaiblable at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4121375.