Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs

Learning from Arts-Based Studies

Unlike most other forms of social research, arts-based studies do not make knowledge claims. Individual projects of arts-based research are not designed to add to a cumulative knowledge base. There is therefore no intent to have readers or viewers generalize in a traditional sense found in science-based studies. Instead, the generalization process is closer to what is called naturalistic generalization from case studies (see Chapter Ten), or psychological generalization, as the reader or viewer responds personally to the research text. This occurs as members of a research audience are allowed to vicariously inhabit a virtual world, enabled to reexperience parts of that world from a fresh perspective. When this ...