A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book

Arts-Based Methods in IR




AuthorsSärmä, Saara; Vuori, Juha A.

EditorsBerit Bliesemann de Guevara & Katarzyna Kaczmarska & Xymena Kurowska & Birgit Poopuu & Andrea Warnecke

PublisherOxford University PressOxford

Publication year2025

Book title Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics: A Handbook Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics: A Handbook

First page 329

Last page345

ISBN978-0-19-287114-5

eISBN978-0-19-196747-4

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192871145.003.0023

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingNo Open Access

Publication channel's open availability No Open Access publication channel

Web address https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192871145.003.0023


Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of arts-based methods in the study of international politics and the kinds of knowledge that the deployment of such methods by the researcher or researchers’ collaboration with artists make possible. The chapter begins with an overall mapping of the field that includes a variety of art-forms used in arts-based International Relation (IR) research and then focuses on visual arts through the examples of how the authors of the chapter have used collage art and collaboration with a visual artist in their own work. As such, art opens up registers of knowledge production beyond the more common ways of conducting research in the field of IR through the possibility of using various semiotic channels of the human senses, narrative forms beyond academic text, and providing possibilities for embodied experiences. As a form of communication, art can be used to test limits of practice both in terms of what is being studied and the practice of research itself. The display of arts-based research can also be a way of disseminating knowledge to and interacting with audiences that would otherwise not come into contact with the research.



Last updated on 04/02/2026 09:50:16 AM