Creative Research Methods 2e. Kara, Helen
complete Luddite, I would recommend staying open to the possibilities that technology can offer your research. And you can learn one step at a time. Most researchers are happy to use e-mail, word processing and text messaging these days, and it is only one more step from there to using Skype, creating graphs from your data or tweeting. The more of this kind of thing you do, the more confident, knowledgeable and skilled you will become. Also, the great thing about using technology is that, if you get stuck, you can almost always find a solution online.
Multi-modal research involves combining different methods of data gathering and/or analysis, different types of recruitment or sampling, different theoretical and/or disciplinary perspectives and so on. It is often seen as particularly useful for investigating complex research questions (Box 2.1) (Koro-Ljungberg 2012: 814; Gidron 2013: 306).
Box 2.1: Multi-modal research by Mayoh et al
UK researchers Joanne Mayoh, Carol Bond and Les Todres conducted a multi-modal study of the experiences of UK adults with chronic health conditions who looked for health information online. This is a complex phenomenon, so the researchers decided to use several methods in an iterative design with the aim of ‘identifying and communicating both breadth and depth of information’ (Mayoh et al 2012: 22). As there was not much previous research in this area, the first phase of data gathering involved two questionnaires, mainly quantitative, to gather broad data about patients’ experiences of finding information and about the barriers perceived by non-users of the internet. The analysis of data from these questionnaires provided an appropriate focus for in-depth interviews, which could not have been achieved from the existing literature (Mayoh et al 2012: 27). Altogether, the findings gave a much clearer picture of the complex phenomenon of adults with chronic health conditions seeking health information online than could have been achieved using any single qualitative or quantitative research method (Mayoh et al 2012: 29).
Conventional research methods have been around for so long, and are so pervasive, that they can seem to be ‘right’ and ‘natural’ (Dark 2009: 176–7). However, for some researchers, conventional methods may fix and limit meaning in a reductive way, while creative methods can more accurately reflect the multiplicity of meanings that exist in social contexts (for example, Inckle 2010). This can lead to methods being creatively layered alongside each other to build a richer picture. For example, interviews have been enhanced by various other methods of data gathering, such as photographs in photo-elicitation (Smith et al 2012), diaries in diary interviews (Kenten 2010) and fixed-narrative and interactive developmental vignettes (Box 2.2) (Jenkins et al 2010). (There is more information about enhanced interviews in Chapter 6.) In each case, the researchers are confident that enhanced interviews produce richer and more insightful data than conventional interviews or the associated method(s) would do alone.
Box 2.2: Multi-modal research by Mannay
UK researcher Dawn Mannay combined interviews with photographs, mapping and collage production in her insider study of the experiences of mothers and daughters on a social housing estate. Mannay had six participants. Two were asked to take a set of photographs showing places and activities that had meaning for them; two were asked to draw maps of their physical and social environments; and two were asked to produce collages, using images and words from a range of sources, to give a visual representation of their world. Each visual output was used as a basis for an interview with its creator. For Mannay, these visual methods provided a useful way of ‘making the familiar strange’, which enabled her to gain a ‘more nuanced understanding of the mothers’ and daughters’ worlds’ (Mannay 2010: 100) than she could have done using interviews alone.
It could be argued that ethnographers are at the forefront of multi-layered methodologies. There are now many varieties of ethnography, including performative, institutional, collaborative, embodied, arts-based, participatory, virtual and narrative ethnography (Vannini 2013: 442) and sensory ethnography (Pink 2015). Ethnographers take the most eclectic approach to data gathering, using a wide range of sources, from ecstatic dance (Pickering 2009) to mobile phones with GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking technology (Christensen et al 2011: 233). Ethnographers also take a varied approach to presentation and dissemination, using methods such as publicly exhibited art installations (Degarrod 2013) and private film screenings (Franzen 2013: 422).
The same method can sometimes be used creatively at different stages of the research process. For example, vignettes have been used as part of data gathering (for example, Jenkins et al 2010), data analysis (for example, Benozzo 2011), and writing (for example, Inckle 2010) (see Chapter 6 for more on vignette methodologies).
Box 2.3: Creativity promoted by failure for McCormack et al
Even failure can promote creativity in research. UK researchers Mark McCormack, Adrian Adams and Eric Anderson were interested in how the lives of bisexual men were influenced by decreasing levels of homophobia. They obtained ethical approval to conduct in-depth face-to-face interviews with bisexual men in Los Angeles, New York and London, with participants being recruited online. However, this recruitment method proved both time consuming and ineffective; in two full days in Los Angeles the researchers managed to secure only two interviews. With time running out, they decided to try a rather drastic recruitment method. They went to Venice Beach, a crowded bohemian area of the city, and shouted to people in the street that they were looking for bisexual men to interview. Using this method, they were able to secure 14 interviews in five hours. They treated this as a pilot, and repeated the experiment in several other crowded urban spaces in each of the three cities, wearing cowboy hats, carrying brightly coloured clipboards and shouting, ‘Bisexual men, we’re paying $40 for academic research,’ at regular 20-second intervals (McCormack et al 2013: 233). Two of the three researchers did the shouting, while a third waited in a nearby location such as a cafe, ready to conduct interviews; they rotated roles throughout each day in the field. This proved a very successful recruitment strategy and they were able to secure an average of around three interviews per hour.
Conventional research aims to be value free, apparently without realising that this is in itself a value. Conventional research methods are often presented as usable, independent of context, despite being products of specific cultural contexts (Gobo 2011: 433). Creative ethical research turns this on its head by using transformative research frameworks, which are flexible enough to take account of relevant contextual factors. These frameworks are based on and intended to promote positive social values, such as equality and justice. Examples of these creative ethical research frameworks include emancipatory or activist research, feminist research, participatory research and queer research, known collectively as transformative research frameworks (Mertens 2010: 473). These will be discussed more fully in Chapter 3.
The categories of ‘arts-based’, ‘embodied’, ‘multi-modal’, ‘using technology’ and ‘transformative’ are not mutually exclusive. For example, multi-modal research may be conducted within a transformative framework (Sweetman et al 2010: 452). Transformative research may also be arts based (Box 2.4) (Blodgett et al 2013), and multi-modal research may use technology (Hesse-Biber and Griffin 2013: 43), as may embodied research (Jewitt and Mackley 2019: 90).
Box 2.4: Transformative, multi-modal, arts-based research by Blodgett et al
Amy Blodgett and her colleagues in Ontario, Canada, conducted participatory action research with a decolonising agenda in their investigation of the sport experiences of young Aboriginal athletes who were moving off reserves to take part in sport. Four academic researchers from Laurentian University in Ontario worked in partnership with three Aboriginal researchers from Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve. The research team drew on the local and cultural knowledge and experience of the Aboriginal researchers and the methodological knowledge and experience of the academic researchers to ensure that the research was ‘culturally appropriate and methodologically sound’ (Blodgett et al 2013: 316). The research team