Arts-based co-production in participatory research: harnessing creativity in the tension between process and product. (24th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Phillips, Louise; Christensen-Strynø, Maria Bee; Frølunde, Lisbeth
• Is Part Of: Evidence & policy. Volume 18:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 391
• Page End: 411
• Publication Date: 2022-05-24
• Subjects: arts-based research -- co-production -- embodied -- affective -- aesthetic knowing -- participatory research; Policy sciences -- Periodicals; Social policy -- Research -- Periodicals; Public welfare -- Research -- Periodicals; Social service -- Decision making -- Periodicals; 320.6
• DOI: 10.1332/174426421X16445103995426
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1744-2648

Abstract

Abstract : Background: In participatory research approaches, co-researchers and university researchers aim to co-produce and disseminate knowledge across difference in order to contribute to social and practice change as well as research. The approaches often employ arts-based research methods to elicit experiential, embodied, affective, aesthetic ways of knowing. The use of arts-based research in co-production in participatory research is embedded in a contested discursive terrain. Here, it is embroiled in political struggles for legitimacy revolving around what counts as knowledge and whose knowledge counts. Aims and objectives: The aim is to present and illustrate the use of a theoretical framework for analysing the complexities of co-production in the nexus between arts and research – with a focus on the overarching tension between cultivating the collaborative, creative process and producing specific research results. The article maps out the contested discursive terrain of arts-based co-production, and illustrates the use of the theoretical framework in analysis of a participatory research project about dance for people with Parkinson's disease and their spouses. Methods: The theoretical framework combines Bakhtin's theory of dialogue, Foucault's theory of power/knowledge and discourse, Wetherell's theory of affect and emotion, and work in arts-based research on embodied, affective, aesthetic knowing. Results: The analysis shows how arts-based processes of co-production elicit embodied, emotional, aesthetic knowing and with what consequences for the research-based knowledge and other outputs generated. Discussion and conclusions: Trying to contribute to both research and practice entails navigating in a discursive terrain in which criteria for judging results, outputs and impact are often defined across conflicting discourses.