Working with Creative and Dialogic Methods in Longitudinal Research

While longitudinal qualitative research is mostly conducted with individuals, it is increasingly common for researchers to use a range of focus group techniques including participatory or arts-based methods that invite dialogic exchange within the participant group to generate data. This chapter discusses our experience of integrating participatory drama and discussion-based workshops (termed dialogic workshops) into the longitudinal mixed method Life Patterns study. We begin by providing an overview of the emergence of creative and participatory approaches in longitudinal studies, before focusing specifically on creative activities that were included in dialogic workshops that we held in 2018 and 2021 in Launceston, located in the Australian state of Tasmania. Drawing on data from these workshops, we argue that participatory and arts-based methods can provide participants with opportunities to share the ways in which they make sense not only of their own biographies, but also those of their generation. We ultimately seek to highlight the way in which creative and participatory elements open the space for meaning making by the participants, and the ways in which use of metaphoric representations permit them to account for the complexity of their experience.