Do Better Research

In this, episode one, we’ll be exploring what we mean by research, and why we do it. We’ll be talking to some active researchers – Dr Tom Vine and Dr Fran Hyde of the Suffolk Business School (www.uos.ac.uk/business) - about their research journeys and what they enjoy about engaging with research. We’ll also be thinking about where research projects come from, both from within our workplace and deciding what to study as part of a research project.  

The Guests...

Dr Tom Vine has a new book out! Check it out here: Vine, T. (2021) Bureaucracy, London: Routledge (https://www.routledge.com/Bureaucracy-A-Key-Idea-for-Business-and-Society/Vine/p/book/9781138483316) 

Dr Fran Hyde's latest paper from her PhD research can be found here: Hyde, F. (2020). Harry’s most important work. Marketing Theory. Vol 20(2) pp. 211–218 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1470593119897777?journalCode=mtqa)

Credit: Music: https://www.purple-planet.com 

In this episode, I speak to two fantastic researchers Dr Jan Wilcox (https://www.uos.ac.uk/people/dr-jan-wilcox) and Dr Suzanne Culshaw (https://www.bera.ac.uk/person/suzanne-culshaw) about their use of visual methods in their PhD research. You'll hear how they employed visual components to their methods to enhance their data collection, providing focal points for participant discussions. They'll also be sharing some tips on how to include visual methods in your own research design. 

The Guests...

Dr Jan Wilcox's PhD thesis can be found here: Wilcox, J. (2019) The Incredibles: Investigating what it is like to be a portfolio worker. PhD thesis, University of Essex. (available here: http://repository.essex.ac.uk/24924/)

And Dr Suzanne Culshaw's paper on her research can be found here: Culshaw, S. (2019) ‘The unspoken power of collage? Using an innovative arts-based research method to explore the experience of struggling as a teacher’. London Review of Education, 17 (3): 268–283. (DOI https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.17.3.03) 

Further Resources...

If you're interested in further exploring the use of creative methods in research, I absolutely recommend Dr Helen Kara's Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide, a preview for which is available from Google Books (shorturl.at/lyKW0) or the newer second edition is available to pre-order now (https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-research-methods).