This volume on arts-based research explores the transformative power of
arts for qualitative inquiry and beyond. The chapters address multiple
approaches from within arts-based research and suggest that art can be
mobilized to reorient the political, especially when we find the
political aim straying from its proper target of truth and justice.
Artistic representation is never an end in itself, for the goal is to
change the way we think about people and their lives. Arts-based
research makes the world visible in new and different ways, in ways
ordinary scholarly writing does not allow. The Arts develops a utopian
idea of belonging, illustrating how moments of history, biography,
culture, politics and lived experience come together in the aesthetic.
Ultimately, the content of the book examines how artistic insights
resonate in arts-based research, something that not only gives us
criteria for assessing the quality of ethical engagement in arts-based
research practice, but also provides a conceptual framework for living
more just lives through art.