Patricia Leavy ‘Performance-Based Emergent Methods’ ch.17, in The Handbook of emergent methods edited by Sharlene Nagy Hess-Biber and Patricia Leavy (Guilford Press, 2008) 343-357

Leavy’s article is a well-written overview of contemporary and emergent performance based research. Leavy is a prominent figure and strong advocate of the innovative and transformative possibilities of art based research. In this article she explores the typology of performative research methodology including Ethnodrama, Readers Theatre, Performance Autoethnography and Dance and movement. She also differentiates between performance based data collection methods using traditional theatre to construct data and the utilisation of traditional qualitative means of social research such as interviewing and focus groups, which are then interpreted and presented through a dramatic format.

Leavy firmly locates performative research as a tool that enables marginalised and subjugated voices to be heard and to create a holistic data representation that has an immediacy and elicits an emotional connection to audience. What is clearly evident throughout Leavy’s article is her interest to locate performance-based research within accepted and dominant ideologies, seen through the explicit labeling of 'empirical' supportive studies and introducing the article with an 'academic context' sub chapter. This need to academically support her article may be seen as an example of the continual struggle of emergent arts based methodologies to gain validity and legitimacy in the social science and wider community. Leavy’s chapter is a fantastic piece for anyone who wants a contemporary overview of performance-based methods of research.

Link to Patricia Leavy's Stone Hill College home page