Arts-Based Research: Paradigms, Methodologies, and the Challenge of Evaluation

Resumo

This article critically examines Arts-Based Research (ABR), a transdisciplinary approach that seamlessly integrates artistic creativity with rigorous research methodologies. The central aim is to ascertain whether ABR constitutes an independent research paradigm, distinct from conventional qualitative inquiry, or if it is best understood as a specialised subset. To address this, the study meticulously delves into ABR’s unique axiological, ontological, epistemological, and methodological foundations, with a particular emphasis on its distinctive capacity for knowledge construction through artistic expression and its inherent drive towards social change and justice. The analysis highlights how ABR significantly expands the humanities’ epistemological repertoire. It achieves this by incorporating not only discursive but also aesthetic and affective modes of knowing, thereby fostering layered, interpretive, and often embodied understandings that transcend propositional logic. Furthermore, the article critically contrasts conventional research evaluation criteria, such as validity and reliability, with ABR’s preferred focus on trustworthiness and crystallisation. In doing so, it addresses the pertinent “anything goes” concern by stressing the imperative for methodological precision and rigour within ABR practice. The findings suggest that ABR, through its synthesis of academic exactitude and artistic innovation, effectively transcends traditional divisions between art and science. It is argued that ABR operates within specific theoretical frameworks designed to construct knowledge through contextual analysis and a critical examination of society, with the ultimate aim of fostering profound social change and justice, using art as its guiding principle. The conclusion robustly advocates for ABR’s recognition as a legitimate and promising independent paradigm, one that enhances accessibility to complex knowledge and significantly expands the boundaries of human understanding through evocative and transformative artistic inquiry.