Abstract:

There has been a significant increase in the use of arts-based methods across a broad range of disciplines, including sociology, education, psychology, and health care. Within criminology, this move towards less traditional or scientific methods has also been notable. Drawing on two recent research projects, both focusing on undocumented (or ‘irregular’) migrants, that used arts based research methods as part of the data collection process, this paper will discuss how such approaches can be considered as ‘methodological tools’ that can be used as various stages of the research process, including ‘data generation, analysis, interpretation, and representation’ (Leavy, 2015: 4). What these approaches offer, and what knowledge and information they can capture that other methods cannot, will be considered. But how do these methods fit alongside more established quantitative and qualitative research methods? Although these approaches are said to represent a more recent, alternative paradigm, this paper considers the challenges to using these methods within a discipline that values the production of ‘hard data’, as well as the difficulties in data collection when trying to utilise arts based research methods in collaboration with more traditional qualitative methods. It will also discuss the challenges to aiding student learning of such approaches, particularly when arts-based approaches to conducting research disrupt the idea of the importance of 'hard' or 'scientific' data that many students become so accustomed to holding up as a benchmark to understanding the value of data. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a place in research methods teaching for arts-based approaches that can compliment, rather than conflict with, the teaching of more traditional research methodologies.

Keywords:

Research methodology, arts based methods, innovation, technology, research projects.