How to Use Creative and Embodied Methods

Abstract

This guide provides an overview of when, how, and why researchers can and should (re)engage with their bodily senses, affects, feelings, and motivations for the purposes of digital social science methodological inquiry. Using the example of Feminist Think Tank’s research-creation project, Feminists Do Media, this guide offers junior and intermediate researchers the vocabularies and tools needed to understand what embodiment means within the social sciences. It also considers the ethical implications of embodied methods and the situated role that researchers play during the research design, implementation, and dissemination stages. This guide then outlines how to reflect on the politics of digital media spaces that researchers are working with to teach readers about how digital media affordances impact the research process. Ultimately, readers will learn: (1) how to gauge when embodied methods are a good fit for the research they are undertaking; (2) how to effectively design research questions for embodied research; and (3) how to situate their role as a researcher to critically consider ethics, power, positionality, and the politics of the digital space.