Enriching social work research through architectural multisensory methods: Strategies for connecting the built environment and human experience

Abstract

Scholars have called for greater emphasis on the physical environment to expand social work research, policy, and practice; however, there has been little focus on the role of the built environment. Redressing this gap in the literature, this methodological paper explicates how four multisensory research methods commonly used in architecture—sketch walks, photography, spatial visualization, and mapping—can be used in social work research to create a greater understanding of the complex, interconnected, and multidimensional nature of built environments in relationship to human experience. The methods explored in this paper provide social work researchers with a methodological conduit to explore the relationship between the built environment and vulnerable populations, understand and advocate for spatial justice, and participate knowledgeably in interdisciplinary policy realms involving the built environment and marginalized populations.

“Carefully Curated/For Heart and Soul”: Sensing Place Identity in Sex Workplaces

“…This paper shares one area of a larger design ethnography [34] inquiry that explores the co-creation of spatial justice with women and gender-diverse sex workers in Calgary, Alberta. Nine co-researchers with lived experience in sex work contributed to this research, engaging in multisensory and arts-based fieldwork [35][36][37] that explicates their embodied experiences within their workplaces. This research received Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board (CFREB) approval at the University of Calgary (REB20-1874).…”

“…Thus, the participants were positioned as co-researchers with their needs, lived expertise, and wishes centred throughout the research process in partnership with the researcher leading the project [39]. The coresearchers had the choice of engaging in one, some, or all of the four multisensory and arts-based activities [35,36] and go-along workplace interviews [37,40,41].…”

Improving Sensemaking in Social Work: A worked example with Deleuze and Art

“…Making sense of/with space has also featured in Social Work literature; for example, Ferguson (2016) charted "a series of transitions from the office to the doorstep, and into the home, where complex interactions with service users and their domestic space and other objects appear" (p.65). Additionally, connections between (architectural) space and (implicit) Sensemaking are discussed by Grittner and Burns (2020) who consider the use of sketch walks, photography, spatial visualisation and creative mapping to gain "deeper understandings of engrained connections to the built environment" (p.8).…”

Sensory Arts-Based Storytelling as Critical Reflection: Tales From an Online Graduate Social Work Classroom

“…Educated as a historian, visual artist, and architect, Alison led the class and is currently a PhD candidate and social work instructor. She has engaged in arts and community-based research for over a decade, with her current research focusing on engaging communities in participatory and sensory arts-based modalities to understand and cultivate social justice (Grittner, 2019;Grittner & Burns, 2020). Alyssa, Janelle, Jena, Jeremy, Sarah, and Veronica came to their MSW program possessing varied backgrounds in Law,…”