Embodiment in Qualitative Research

Description

Embodiment in Qualitative Research connects critical, interdisciplinary theorizing of embodiment with creative, practical strategies for engaging in embodied qualitative research. Ellingson equips qualitative researchers not only to resist the mind–body split in principle but to infuse their research with the vitality that comes from embracing knowledge production as deeply embedded in sensory experience. Grounded in poststructuralist, posthumanist, and feminist perspectives, this innovative book synthesizes current interdisciplinary theories and research on embodiment; explores research examples from across the social sciences, education, and allied health; and features embodied ethnographic tales and evocative moments from everyday life for reflexive consideration. Each chapter offers flexible starting points for doing embodiment actively throughout every stage of qualitative research. An awareness of, and an active engagement with, issues of embodiment enhances scholars’ ability to produce high quality research and enlarges their capacity as public intellectuals to spark positive social change, particularly within marginalized communities. The strategies offered relate to methodologies from across the entire spectrum: from traditional qualitative methods such as grounded theory, critical/theoretical analysis, and discourse analysis, to arts-based research — including performance, autoethnographic narrative, poetry, and documentary film making. Embodiment in Qualitative Research is designed as a resource book for qualitative researchers who want to explore the latest trends in critical theorizing. The writing style will appeal to researchers who seek a bridge between abstract theorizing and pragmatic strategies for producing outstanding qualitative research, as well as to critical scholars who want to integrate embodied ways of knowing with their theorizing. Graduate (and advanced undergraduate) qualitative methods students and early career researchers, as well as advanced scholars seeking to enrich the scope and texture of their work, will find the text inspiring and engaging. Embodiment in Qualitative Research- Front Cover......Page 1 Embodiment in Qualitative Research......Page 2 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Brief Table of Contents......Page 8 Detailed Table of Contents......Page 9 Tables......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 15 Introduction: Elusive Bodies: The (Dis)Embodiment of Research......Page 18 Defining Embodiment......Page 19 Unapologetically Eclectic......Page 20 The Mind-Body Split and the Erasure of Bodies in Research......Page 22 Organization of the Book......Page 26 Doing Legwork: Inspiring Bodies......Page 27 Theorizing Embodiment......Page 28 Practices for Embodying Research......Page 44 Doing Legwork: Speaking Ethics......Page 49 Questioning the Body......Page 51 Designing Embodied Qualitative Research: A Continuum Approach......Page 52 Ethical Bodies in Research......Page 61 Practices for Embodying Design......Page 68 Doing Legwork: Languaging Disability in Everyday Life......Page 74 Body and Identity......Page 77 Categorical Bodies......Page 78 Practices for Inquiring into Embodiment......Page 92 Doing Legwork: There’s No Rest for the Wicked......Page 96 Bodies in the Field......Page 97 Practices for Embodying the Field......Page 108 Doing Legwork: Your/My/Our Bodies......Page 116 Active Interviewing......Page 119 Language of the Body: Understanding Nonverbal Communication......Page 121 Power and Resistance in Interviews......Page 127 Re/Membering the Body......Page 129 To Match or Not To Match—Performance of Shared Identities......Page 130 Technology, Mediated Bodies, and Embodiment......Page 132 Practices for Embodied Interviewing......Page 134 Doing Legwork: Bodies of Data, Data of Bodies......Page 141 What Do Data Do?......Page 145 Fieldnotes: The Language of Embodied Data......Page 149 Recording Bodies......Page 150 Practices for Inscribing Bodies in Data......Page 157 Doing Legwork: On Thinking through Data with Mind-Altering Medications......Page 164 Data Analysis as Material Practice......Page 166 Analysis as Always Already Embodied......Page 167 Head, Heart, and Gut Analysis......Page 173 Practices for Embodied Analysis......Page 175 Doing Legwork: Where Social Science Meets Art......Page 184 What’s In and What Lurks Outside......Page 187 (De)Composing Bodies......Page 188 Subjugated Knowledges/Knowledge of Subjugation......Page 193 Radical Specificity......Page 195 Refracting Bodies through Crystallization......Page 196 Practices for Embodying Representation......Page 198 Doing Legwork: A Calling......Page 205 Pulling Threads......Page 207 Materializing Social Change......Page 210 Knot......Page 213 References......Page 214 Index......Page 242