Poetry as method – trying to see the world differently. (1st February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chapman Hoult, Elizabeth; Mort, Helen; Pahl, Kate; Rasool, Zanib
• Is Part Of: Research for all. Volume 4:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 87
• Page End: 101
• Publication Date: 2020-02-01
• Subjects: POETRY AS METHOD -- POETRY IN COMMUNITIES -- POETRY AS ENQUIRY; Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Interdisciplinary research -- Periodicals; 001.4
• DOI: 10.18546/RFA.04.1.07
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2399-8121

Abstract

Abstract : Research with communities, even co-produced research with a commitment to social justice, can be limited by its expression in conventional disciplinary language and format. Vibrant, warm and sometimes complex encounters with community partners become contained through the gesture of representation. In this sense, 'writing up' can actually become a kind of slow violence towards participants, projects and ourselves. As a less conventional and containable form of expression, poetry offers an alternative to the power games of researching 'on' communities and writing it up. It is excessive in the sense that it goes beyond the cycles of reduction and representation, allowing the expression of subjective (and perhaps sometimes even contradictory) impressions from participants. In this cowritten paper we explore poetry as a social research method through subjective testimony and in the light of our Connected Communities-funded projects (Imagine, Threads of Time and Taking Yourself Seriously), where poetry as method came to the fore as a way of hearing and representing voices differently.