A note on arts-based research and some issues involved with reference to social science research

A note on arts-based research and some issues involved with reference to social science research (information from MS Copilot)

My question 1: "What is arts-based research all about in the context osf social science research?"

The reply: "Arts-based research in social science uses creative methods—like visual art, performance, or storytelling—as tools for inquiry, not just communication. It’s about generating knowledge through artistic processes.

In the context of social science, arts-based research (ABR) is a dynamic and interdisciplinary approach that integrates artistic practices into the research process to explore, understand, and represent human experiences. Here's how it works and why it matters:

🎨 What Is Arts-Based Research?

• Creative methods as research tools: ABR uses artistic forms—such as drawing, painting, photography, theater, music, dance, and creative writing—not just to present findings, but to generate data and insights.

• Epistemological hybridity: It blends the ways of knowing from both the arts and social sciences, creating a space where emotion, intuition, and aesthetics are valued alongside logic and analysis.

🔍 How It’s Used in Social Science

• Data generation: Participants might create artwork or engage in performance to express their experiences, which researchers then analyze.

• Data analysis: Artistic interpretation can be used to uncover patterns, meanings, or emotional truths that traditional methods might miss.

• Knowledge dissemination: Findings are often shared through exhibitions, performances, or multimedia formats, making research more accessible and engaging.

🌱 Why It Matters

• Holistic understanding: ABR captures the complexity of human life, especially in areas like identity, trauma, community, and transformation.

• Empowerment and inclusion: It often involves participants as co-creators, giving voice to marginalized groups and fostering collaborative inquiry.

• Transformative potential: By engaging emotions and senses, ABR can provoke reflection, dialogue, and social change.

🧠 Examples

• Photovoice projects: Participants use photography to document and reflect on their lived experiences, often in urban or community settings.

• Ethnodrama: Researchers turn interview data into theatrical scripts to explore social issues.

• Visual diaries or collages: Used to explore personal narratives, mental health, or cultural identity.

Arts-based research is especially powerful when conventional methods fall short in capturing the richness of lived experience. If you're curious, I can walk you through how to design an ABR project or explore examples in your field."

My question 2: "Does an art work endeavor contradict with the fundamental goal of social science of seeking for the correct and single version of truth (in terms of epistemology)?"

The reply: "No, an artwork-based research endeavor does not contradict the epistemological goals of social science—it challenges the notion of a single, objective truth by embracing multiple, situated truths and subjective experiences.

Arts-based research (ABR) in social science operates on a different epistemological foundation than traditional positivist approaches. Here's how it aligns and diverges:

🧠 Epistemological Tensions and Harmonies

• Traditional social science often seeks generalizable, objective, and replicable truths—rooted in positivism or post-positivism.

• Arts-based research, by contrast, is grounded in constructivist, interpretivist, and critical epistemologies. It values subjectivity, emotion, and contextual meaning.

Rather than contradicting social science, ABR expands its epistemological landscape. It asks: Whose truth? In what context? Through what lens?

🎨 ABR’s Epistemological Commitments

• Situated truths: ABR acknowledges that truth is shaped by culture, history, and personal experience.

• Embodied knowledge: It values how people know through their bodies, emotions, and senses—not just through logic or language.

• Multiplicity over singularity: ABR resists the idea of one "correct" version of truth, instead embracing pluralism and complexity.

• Witnessing and voice: It often centers marginalized perspectives, revealing power structures and silenced narratives.

🔄 Complementarity, Not Contradiction

ABR doesn’t reject empirical rigor—it reframes it. For example:

• A photovoice project might reveal urban inequality through participant-generated images, offering insights that surveys alone can’t capture.

• Ethnodrama can dramatize interview data, making systemic issues emotionally resonant and socially actionable.

These methods complement traditional approaches by adding depth, nuance, and human texture.

🧩 Final Thought

Arts-based research isn’t about abandoning truth—it’s about redefining it. In a world of diverse lived realities, ABR helps social science move beyond abstraction and into the realm of meaningful, transformative understanding."

My question 3: "What are the criteria to judge the quality of a novel depicting human experience in a specific historical context (e.g. a suppressed revolt) and a history study of the same specific context, with reference to the standpoint of social science research?"

The reply: "From a social science standpoint, a historical novel is judged by its emotional truth, narrative coherence, and cultural insight, while a historical study is evaluated for its empirical rigor, analytical depth, and methodological transparency. Both aim to illuminate human experience, but through different epistemological lenses.

Here’s a breakdown of how each is assessed within social science frameworks:

📚 Criteria for Evaluating a Historical Novel

Historical novels are not judged by factual accuracy alone. Instead, social science values their ability to evoke lived experience and cultural meaning:

• Narrative authenticity: Does the story reflect plausible human experiences within the historical context? Are characters psychologically and socially believable?

• Cultural and emotional resonance: Does the novel capture the emotional landscape of the time—fear, hope, resistance, trauma?

• Contextual fidelity: Are historical settings, customs, and power dynamics portrayed with nuance, even if fictionalized?

• Multiplicity of voices: Does the novel represent diverse perspectives, especially those marginalized in official histories?

• Interpretive richness: Does it provoke reflection on identity, agency, and historical memory?

Novels are often used in social science to explore subjective truths, embodied knowledge, and affective dimensions of history.

📖 Criteria for Evaluating a Historical Study

Historical studies are assessed using more conventional academic standards, rooted in empirical and analytical rigor:

• Source integrity: Are primary and secondary sources critically evaluated and properly cited?

• Methodological transparency: Is the research design clear—archival, oral history, comparative analysis?

• Analytical depth: Does the study go beyond description to interpret causes, consequences, and structures of power?

• Historiographical awareness: Does it engage with existing scholarship and debates?

• Objectivity and reflexivity: Is the researcher aware of their own positionality and potential biases?

These criteria align with historical thinking standards that emphasize multiple sources, interpretation, and critical engagement.

🔍 Social Science Standpoint: Bridging the Two

Social science doesn’t privilege one form over the other—it asks different questions of each:

Aspect	Historical Novel	Historical Study
Truth Type	Emotional, experiential, symbolic	Empirical, analytical, documented
Method	Narrative, imagination, cultural immersion	Archival research, interviews, analysis
Value to Social Science	Reveals lived experience, silenced voices	Explains structures, causes, and consequences
Epistemology	Constructivist, interpretivist	Positivist, post-positivist, critical

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A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.