Doing Poetic Inquiry

This book offers a phenomenologically-inspired approach to sharing stories via ‘poetic inquiry’, a research approach that is rapidly gaining popularity within psychology and the wider social sciences. Owton begins by framing how poetry can appeal to all of the senses, how it can offer readers a shared experience of the world and why poetry should be used as a research approach. Chapters explore various aspects of poetic inquiry including poetry as data, turning data into poetry, poetry as literature review and poetry as reflective writing. The final chapters consider how one might draw on characterising traits to judge poetic inquiry, and how poetry might resonate with audiences to effect wider dissemination of research. This interdisciplinary exploration will be of interest to scholars in psychology, sociology, social work, and literature, as well as to medical and sports practitioners.

“This book is written using a personal and emotive account and inevitably brings the reader’s emotions to the fore. … Owton achieves what she set out to do; that is, inform novices of the potential power and many uses of poetic inquiry, as well as justifying its uses as a rigorous and arduous in its’ own right.” (Zainab Yusuf, Qualitative Methods in Psychology/QMiP Bulletin, Iss. 25, 2018)

Helen Owton is a chartered psychologist and Lecturer in Sport and Fitness and Associate Lecturer in Social Psychology at The Open University. She has published numerous papers employing creative methodologies, specifically poetry and art, and won the ‘Citation for Excellence’ award from the Qualitative Methods of Psychology section of the British Psychological Society.