How to Analyse Relationally - Trace A Photograph

Citation

Michael M (2019) How to Analyse Relationally - Trace A Photograph. 3rd European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 13.02.2019-15.02.2019.

Abstract
With Decuypere and Simon (2016) we suggest that it is no longer particularly groundbreaking to 'state that' something is relational, rather it is in the 'showing how' lines of relation are distributed - this is where ground needs to be broken. Showing how is, however, one of the most complex challenges facing relational research and the challenge is situated in first, discerning a form of analysis that does not compromise the very relationality it seeks to understand; and second, anticipating a form of representation that does not contradict the relational theory it stands in for. This practical workshop leads you through a deceptively simple drawing technique that 'shows how' something might be relationally analysed, and then how that analysis might discern how the lines of relations are distributed (or are they enacted, assembled...?) The workshop is designed around a series of practical tasks and discussions; their purpose is to raise and explore all sorts of tricky questions around the theory, representation, and emotion involved in relational analyses. Our theoretical sympathies lie with sociomaterial practice-based scholars including Tara Fenwick and Sylvia Gherardi but with critical inflections from art-as-research including jan jagodzinski and Graeme Sullivan. Prior drawing/tracing experience is absolutely not necessary. Decuypere, M and Simons, M. (2016) 'Relational thinking in education: topology, sociomaterial studies and figures'. Pedagogy, Culture and Society 23 (3) pp.371-386

Keywords
art-based methods; sociomaterial; relational