Malleable Methodologies: Sculpting and Imagination in Embodied Health Research

Abstract

Health research is complex, often asking questions that have uncertain, indefinite, or inarticulate answers. Embodied health research, which incorporates subjectivity and social relationships centered on the body, adds further complexity. There exist several calls for embodied research methodology, and it is now important to explore aligning methods and further develop embodied health research methodology. Using artistic and interview data from the Beyond the Present: Risk and Body Stigma in Public Health project, this article argues that imagination is a useful methodology and sculpting a fruitful method to draw out health stories. Sculpting and imagination allow material and conceptual malleability and are valuable in addressing complexity and uncertainty in critical qualitative health research.