Qualitative Inquiry at a Crossroads
Political, Performative, and Methodological Reflections
International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Series

Qualitative Inquiry at a Crossroads critically reflects on the ever-changing dynamics of qualitative research in the contemporary moment. We live at a crossroads in which the spaces for critical civic discourse are narrowing, in which traditional political ideologies are now questioned: there is no utopian vision on the horizon, only fear and doubt. The moral and ethical foundations of democracy are under assault, global inequality is on the rise, facts are derided as ?fake news??an uncertain future stands at our door.

Premised on the belief that our troubled times call for a critical inquiry that matters?a discourse committed to a politics of resistance, a politics of possibility?leading international contributors from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Norway, and Denmark present a range of perspectives, challenges, and opportunities for the field. In so doing, they wrestle with questions concerning the intersecting vectors of method, politics, and praxis. More specifically, contributors engage with issues ranging from indigenous and decolonizing methods, arts-based research, and intersectionality to debates over the research marketplace, accountability metrics, and emergent forays into post-qualitative inquiry.

Introduction

Norman K. Denzin and Michael D. Giardina

Part I: Performative Reflections

Chapter 1. Between Bodies: Queer Grief in the Anthropocene

Anne Harris and Stacy Holman Jones

Chapter 2. "I Want the World to See": Black Feminist Performance Auto/Ethnography

Wilson Okello

Chapter 3. Canvassing the Body: A Radical Relationality of Art, Body, and Vibrant Materiality

Tami Spry

Chapter 4. Intersectionality in Education Research: Methodology as Critical Inquiry and Praxis

Venus Evans-Winters and Jennifer Esposito

Part II: Philosophical Inflections

Chapter 5. Voice in the Agentic Assemblage

Lisa A. Mazzei and Alecia Youngblood Jackson

Chapter 6. Wondering in The Dark: The Generative Power of Unknowing in the Arts and In Qualitative Inquiry

Liora Bresler

Chapter 7. Virtuous Inquiry, Refusal, and Cynical Work

Aaron M. Kuntz

Chapter 8. Theorizing from the Streets: De/colonizing, Contemplative, and Creative Approaches in Consideration of Quality in Arts-Based Qualitative Research

Kakali Bhattacharya

Chapter 9. Stay Human: Can We Be Human After Posthumanism

Svend Brinkmann

Section III: Political Interventions

Chapter 10. Resisting the Commodified Researcher Self: Interrogating the Data Doubles We Create for Ourselves when Buying and Selling Our Research Products in the Research Marketplace

Julianne Cheek

Chapter 11. Contesting Accountability Metrics in Troubled Times Through Communicative Methodology

Aitor Gómez González

Chapter 12. Seduction and Desire: The Power of Spectacle

Bronwyn Davies

Chapter 13. Stitching Tattered Cloth: Reflections on Social Justice and Qualitative Inquiry in Turbulent Times

Karen M. Staller

Notes on Contributors

Norman K. Denzin (PhD, University of Iowa) is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. One of the world’s foremost authorities on qualitative research and cultural criticism, Denzin is the author or editor of more than two dozen books. He is co-editor (with Yvonna S Lincoln) of the methods journal Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studiesó Critical Methodologies and International Review of Qualitative Research, editor of three book series, and founding director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

Michael D. Giardina (PhD, University of Illinois) is Professor of Media, Politics, and Physical Culture, and Associate Chair of the Department of Sport Management, at Florida State University. He is the author or editor of 20 books. He is editor of the Sociology of Sport Journal, special issues editor of Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, and assistant director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.