21 - Embracing creativity in familiarisation

Summary

Introduction

Familiarisation happens throughout the research process: ‘The process of becoming aware of what is interesting and significant about the information and data you are collecting begins during the first moments of conceiving the research project and continues throughout’ (Silver and Lewins, 2014, p 230). In other words, becoming familiar with or getting to know your data is something researchers do continuously. However, familiarisation is also a phase that has been formalised in approaches to analysis. For example, in their work on reflexive thematic analysis Braun and Clarke (2021, p 35) write that familiarisation is when ‘you become deeply and intimately familiar with the content of your data set, through a process of immersion’. This definition seems broadly applicable to other types of data analysis – regardless of the approach one might take there is almost always a phase of familiarisation at the outset, requiring researchers to ‘get to know’ their data. Although the case example I present in this chapter focuses on familiarisation as a formal phase of data analysis, my chief contention – that consciously embracing a creative sensibility during familiarisation can open up the data in exciting ways – is pertinent for any moment where data familiarisation is occurring.

Familiarisation is integral to data analysis. It allows researchers to ‘get a feel’ for the data, ultimately benefiting other phases of analysis. Though more creative approaches to familiarisation are appearing (Culshaw, 2019; Bazeley, 2020; Thomson, 2020), guidance for familiarisation often includes writing memos while reading, listening, or watching the data repeatedly (see Cohen et al, 2018; Harding, 2018; Byrne, 2022). This is not to suggest that reading, listening, watching, and writing are not creative practices. As the chapters in this book illustrate, creativity takes many forms. However, when I talk about consciously embracing a creative sensibility, I am referring to the deliberate intention of looking beyond the norm, to experiment and explore. In this case, this means going beyond the commonly cited methods of repeated reading, listening, or watching, to invent new ways of doing and knowing.

The study

After providing a brief overview of the limited scholarship on creative approaches to data familiarisation, I draw on my doctoral research to illustrate how I embraced a creative sensibility during the formal phase of familiarisation.