A new study suggests that combining poetry and meditation can enhance qualitative data analysis for researchers by helping them uncover new angles on the world.
Published in the Journal of Marketing Management, the study explains meditation can train researchers' bodies for data collection, helping them capture unexpected insights and deal with uncertainty. Additionally, poetry can offer researchers a tool to refigure their surroundings and shed new light on the data they work with.
Poetic meditation allows researchers to approach data analysis from unexpected directions and find previously unnoticed features in market and consumption environments. The technique is demonstrated through audio recordings of "poetic meditations" that take the listener on a journey through poetry and philosophy, ending with a period of meditation.
It is hoped this method will help researchers better understand novel cultural practices, and give them a new perspective on their data.
“Scientific wonder prompts us to ask questions about the purpose of consumption, the way markets are created and extended, and how life and human experience are attached to both,” Pilar Rojas-Gaviria, from the University of Birmingham, said.
“Academics have always developed theses to resolve questions and explain events, but mindfulness practice can make our bodies an instrument of research – gathering data from different environmental sources.”
Rojas-Gaviria said poetry offers qualitative researchers “a useful tool to refigure their surroundings and shed new light on the data they work with.”
Robin Canniford, from Kedge Business School, commented: “We believe this technique can inspire researchers to include sound recordings and data presentations in their publications – creating a different approach to communicating and understanding their findings.
“Creating a poetic meditation might be a first step in a researcher’s journey that uncovers new sensations, interpretations, and questions - reaching towards unconventional and impactful responses in our research, even when answers seem to be far in the future.”
Rojas-Gaviria and Canniford believe this technique can inspire researchers to include audio recordings and data presentations in their publications, creating a different approach to communicating and understanding their findings.