Talking methods, talking about methods: Invoking the transformative potential of social methods through animals, objects and how‐to instructions

Abstract

This paper focuses on "talking" methods, noting their wide application across the social sciences, and identifies potential spaces for innovation in this field.Drawing on interview material from the Methods for Change project, we argue that researching methods requires creative approaches to talk. With research methods as our focus, we draw on data collected from online interviews with 36 academics, which aimed to explore the transformative potential of social science research methods. We make three contributions. First, we consider challenges and potentials for talking about methods and communicating the transformative potential of social science methods to diverse audiences. Second, we elaborate on the detail of doing talking methods, identifying potential spaces for innovation. Third, we suggest there is value in supplementing interviews with creative techniques when talking with and about method. We highlight three such techniques used in our project as a means of eliciting conversation about the transformative potential of methods: how-to instructions; object interviewing; and methods as animals. The conceptual underpinnings, practical applications and obstacles encountered with each technique are discussed, including our own reflections on creative interviewing in a context where face-to-face research was restricted. In doing so, we respond to and advance recent debates about the need to talk more about the doing of talking methods. We argue that academics need to articulate why methods matter in creating change to global challenges, and that creative techniques can play a pivotal role.

What silence suggests: Thoughts from a moment in a Greater Manchester café

“…A fixation on sharing ‘pure results’ or ‘evidence’ risks obscuring some of the complexities in how research material is produced, offering a disingenuous, overly polished account of the social worlds researchers seek to understand. Indeed, Pottinger et al (2022) show that the aim of social scientists is usually to convince the reader of their findings, such that detailed discussions about the ‘doing’ of research are often omitted in fear of criticism.…”

A spiderweb of human trafficking: An empirical linguistic study

“…As an applied area of research, metaphors are a source for moderating social behaviours and public opinion, establishing meaningful links with the law (Hanne & Weisberg 2018) and economics (Zhu 2023), psychology (Landau et al 2011;De Saint Preux & Blanco 2021), ecology (Rapport 1995;Currie & Clarke 2022;Pottinger et al 2022), cross-border security and migration (De Backer & Enghels 2022), military affairs (Al-Muttairi 2022), media communications (Flusberg et al 2018;Hullman & Kwiatkowski 2021), and education (Farhadi & Winton 2021;Spours et al 2022), etc. Metaphors are also viewed as a key to problems when traditional methods do not meet the needs, for instance, in the social care field, or any other domain where enhanced impact on public opinion is required to tackle socially relevant issues.…”