A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Stimulating Political Imagination With Arts-Based Methods: The Case of Utopia Consultation
Authors: Perheentupa, Inna; Porkola, Pilvi
Publisher: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Publishing place: LONDON
Publication year: 2024
Journal: Sociological Research Online
Journal name in source: SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE
Journal acronym: SOCIOL RES ONLINE
Number of pages: 17
ISSN: 1360-7804
eISSN: 1360-7804
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241286416
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241286416
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/477923666
In this article, we identify ways to methodologically stimulate political imagination in sociological research by exploring an art concept called 'utopia consultation' and related arts-based exercises. We investigate how political imagination can be stimulated and practised through arts-based research methods in sociology, and what tangible tools arts-based research offers for studying the intangible. Our analysis builds on recent work on utopia, understood as a tool rather than a blueprint, and sociology of the future, which focuses on the future as an analytical category. We draw on 18 one-on-one utopia consultation sessions conducted in 3 upper secondary schools in Finland, and 3 facilitated collective discussions with the participants in each education institution to discuss their experiences of the one-on-one utopia consultations. Based on our analysis, we suggest four key methodological practices for stimulating political imagination: dialogue, play, cultivating a hopeful orientation to the not-yet, and collective utopian negotiation. We advance sociological discussions of methodology around utopia and political imagination, and contribute to sociological work on the intangibility of discovering the not-yet through arts-based methods by identifying tangible practices and tools for studying the intangible.
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Funding information in the publication:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research for this article was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant no. 331067).
