Collaborative Arts-Based Research for Social Justice

This book provides a user-friendly guide to conducting collaborative arts-based research. Providing practical, step-by-step assistance on how to actually conduct research, the text offers chapters on:

• Project design
• Data collection using a range of methods, including poetry, story-telling, short-film, photography, visual art and music
• Data analysis
• Dissemination.

Foster also introduces relevant methodological debates, giving a context for understanding when arts-based research can be a fruitful approach to take and outlining a convincing rationale for using the arts as a way of understanding and representing the social world. Illustrative examples from around the world are used throughout and the book ends with an extended case study, exploring the process as a whole.

With its emphasis on the value of participative research and social justice, arts-based research is increasingly popular in health and social research. This is the ideal text for those looking to introduce arts-based methods into their own research.

Victoria Foster is Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Edge Hill University, UK.