A co-operative inquiry about love using narrative, performative and visual methods

Abstract

Participatory researchers advocate using presentational arts-based methods to collectively inquire into a social phenomenon. In a co-operative inquiry in an Australian rural community, ten community workers inquired into the ‘love ethic’ in their community work practice using narrative, performative and visual methods to gather, analyse and interpret data within cycles of reflection and action. Group members collectively and democratically chose to use presentational inquiry tools such as storytelling, dialogical performance, gift-giving, drawing and other non-traditional approaches to explore the topic and generate collaborative knowledge. These methods were engaging and empowering, and supported group members to develop a love-based framework of community practice. The group’s final collective drawing depicts the roots, trunk, fruit and saplings of a tree representing the values, process, outcomes and cyclical nature of the love ethic in community work.