Risky methodologies and humble knowledges: a reflection on arts-based research for disabled and chronically Ill youth

Abstract

ABSTRACT The socio-materiality of risk in sport, exercise, and health has greatly advanced an understanding of the entanglement of embodiment and the social realm, opening up discussions about bodies and technologies as well as bodies and work. The socio-materiality of risk has also facilitated a discussion on both the embodied and material components of risk. In this paper, however, we consider ‘risky methodologies’ to advance discussions on the socio-materiality of risk. We unpack arts-based methodologies as one methodological platform in which bodies and the social realm are entangled and mutually constitutive of one another. Specifically, we show how arts-based research is grounded in the material and the social because it facilitates the development of ambiguous, fluid, ethereal, affective, impressionist, uncertain, and aesthetic knowledges, while, at the same time, advancing scholarship on social justice and injustice. We also propose that ABR is a humble knowledge that stands in contrast to the authority of certain academic disciplines. We weave stories, art, and narratives from empirical data sets to illuminate our discussion and promote critical methodological dialogue and reflection.