Making together: A methodology in the making
The aim of this workshop is to demonstrate the methodological value of making together – the practice of working with others to create tangible artefacts. This aim will be achieved via a workshop during which a conversation will be curated with scholars, artists, and experts with lived experience of health issues and/or healthcare to understand how they have used this methodology, why, and the associated effects. Participants will be invited to engage in a creative making activity to make together (e.g., craft, digital body mapping, found poetry, etc.), as well as consider and critique how they might incorporate this methodology into their scholarship.
There has been limited scholarly engagement with the methodological benefits of making together. Literature on related areas largely highlights four points. First, making together offers therapeutic benefits, fostering self-expression, relationships, health-seeking behaviours, and personal growth (Harter et al., 2022; Kelly, Steiner, Mason, & Teasdale, 2021). Second, making together can offer pedagogical benefits, opening developmental opportunities, as students learn and form their professional identity (Hyde, 2007; Page, 2018). Third, making together can offer social benefits, serving as a form of activism to raise the profile of, understanding about, and action to address social issues (Hackney, Saunders, Willett, Hill, & Griffin, 2020; Pollitt, Blaise, & Gray, 2022). And fourth, artefacts represent a useful way to collect and analyse data, as well as communicate the associated findings – consider, for instance, photovoice (Krutt, Dyer, Arora, Rollman, & Jozkowski, 2018; Overmars-Marx, Thomése, & Meininger, 2018), research-based theatre (Bleuer, Chin, & Sakamoto, 2018; Brown, Ramsay, Milo, Moore, & Hossain, 2018), and found objects (Camic, 2010). Despite the myriad benefits of artefacts and the act of making together, with few exceptions (Mitchell & de Lange, 2011), the methodological benefits of making together remain underexplored. This workshop offers an opportunity to explore and critique making together as a methodology to aid sense-making and sense-giving.
Recording link: https://acspri-org-au.zoom.us/rec/share/6wVWMb2b6X_9QWRg8ZGR0mSDy5gZ_folWvTYWs4wubmAUVvuwnx4f9jPXg_2XSd_.9eniOoEOhLDCIdlf?startTime=1669246291000