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This paper aims to offer a novel participatory visual research method, the mapping of identity (MOI) protocol that embraces the complex nature of contemporary consumers’ lived reality.

The MOI protocol is a two-phase methodology. The first phase includes collage creation, based on a taxonomy of attachments, followed by an elicitation interview structured around the participant’s collage. In phase two, the categories elicited in phase one are synthesised into key themes in collaboration between the researcher and the participant.

MOI methodology provides an effective platform for participants to bring together disjointed memories, fragments and thoughts. Two individual cases are presented that seem similar on the surface; however, when deconstructing these narratives, their lived experiences and the effect that these narratives have on the construction of the self are very different. Treating participants as co-researchers and letting the choices they make in their collage creation lead the interview empowers the participant and enables the researcher to better understand their complex identity articulations.

This study contributes a visual methodology capable of exploring and celebrating the complexities of self-identity.

MOI is a useful tool for facilitating self-exploration in liquid markets. Marketing experts should provide materials that are not too confining and facilitate consumers in expressing multiple voices.

The participatory nature of MOI methodology allows for the emergence of stories from those that might otherwise go unheard, helping to understand unfamiliar and sometimes unrecognised identities.

Marketing literature recognises the complex nature of contemporary lived reality; however, some of the intricate aspects of this reality have not been dealt with in all their complexity. A reason for this gap is the paucity of suitable research methods. The MOI protocol presented in this paper addresses this, providing an effective visual tool to explore the complex web of contemporary consumer life.

Despite the increased interest in video methods and the role of visuality in organizations and management, the use of video in organizations has received scant attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore organizational videoblogs as a phenomenon, and discuss avenues that open up for qualitative research. The paper examines the affordances of organizational videoblogs in a strategy context by contrasting them with more conventional corporate videos, in order to discuss how spectacularization and social media style communication is influencing social practices in organizations.

First, this paper introduces the phenomenon of organizational videoblogging and its implications for research. Second, it engages in a theoretical discussion on videoblogs as a strategizing activity, through three different analytical lenses: strategic sensegiving, strategic self-branding and strategy as spectacle. Illustrative empirical examples are used to support the theoretical discussion.

The paper argues that organizational videoblogging is a phenomenon that changes social practices in organizations by injecting a visual, social media type communication. Organizational videoblogs emphasize authenticity and provide new affordances for sensegiving and self-branding in strategizing, but ultimately lead us to ask whether they risk turning strategizing into an infotainment-like spectacle.

The value of this paper lies in conceptualizing how and why organizational videoblogs can be studied in organizations. The paper provides future research with vocabulary and characteristics to distinguish different types of video in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop videographic methods for the study of alternative entrepreneurship, with a theoretical focus on “ethical uncertainties”, exemplified in this paper by the exploration of evolving actions and unpredictable outcomes in a specific case, the Hungarian company Prezi.

By first situating Prezi’s alternative entrepreneurship in the turbulent Hungarian political context and situation for the Roma population, this study presents how the methodological foundations of organizational videography have affirmed aesthetic immersion, which is of particular use for the study of ethical uncertainty.

Following a methodological exploration of the specific research design and ethnographic reflections on three ways in which ethical uncertainties arise, this study discusses the videographic possibilities to study something as elusive as ethical uncertainty and its link to alternative futures.

The political context in Hungary poses many challenges for organizations that attempt to “do good” and create alternative futures. This paper explains how this political context permeates Prezi’s entrepreneurship and research thereof, by highlighting “ethical uncertainty”. The combined contribution (paper and videography) invites the reader to think differently about the authority of research, become a viewer and reflect on their own experiences of ethical uncertainty in alternative entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of participant-created comics as a research method through a project to investigate the life stories of British–Bangladeshi women.

The author worked with a group of ten women through a series of workshops exploring their personal and community histories. Each of the women produced a digital comic that represented her story using text in any languages, photographs and drawings.

The experiences of the Graphic Lives project suggest there is considerable unexplored potential for the use of comics creation as a research method when working with community groups that may be considered “hard-to-reach”. A crucial difference between the comics created for the Graphic Lives project when compared to many other visual methods is that they do not seek or attempt to represent a verifiable truth. The project acknowledged and accepted the presence of fictional elements of autobiography and the difficulty in drawing boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. Indeed, this was seen as a strength of the stories as the use of imaginary elements offered participants a way to express emotional truths that they may otherwise have found difficult to convey.

Whilst interviewing participants could be one way to analyse participant-created comics in certain circumstances, this should not simply be the default. In the Graphic Lives project, it was important to accept that participants had already voiced their story in a certain way – using words and images – during the creative process. The project needed to accept and respect their voices as they had chosen to present them and not expect the participants to transform this into something that was more aligned with what the researcher might want to hear. A limitation of this method is the time and resourcing required to undertake such a programme of in-depth work, in addition to the need for close collaboration with community partners.

The paper questions the appropriateness of research interviews when working with many “marginalised” groups. It suggests that alternative methods, such as the comics creation method described, may be a more effective way to engage “hard-to-reach” groups in research.

This research has implications for the involvement of groups who, for a variety of reasons, are often excluded from research. It outlines a method that may be more socially acceptable than more established methods such as interviewing for some groups.

To date, exploration of the potential of comics as method of participatory knowledge construction has been limited. In addition, the use of comics to engage communities in research, especially adult groups who may be more reluctant to participate via traditional research methods, has received relatively little attention. This paper addresses these issues through a discussion of the use of comics creation as the research method adopted in a project working with a group of British–Bangladeshi women in the UK.

This study aims to develop an innovative and comprehensive framework to address water-related challenges faced by communities located in urban settlements in the area of Greater Cairo. It is commonly accepted that such global challenges that border issues of resilience, community development, social equity and inclusive growth, call for a collaboration of disciplines. Such collaboration allows for the identification of synergies in ways that can enlighten and enrich the space of potential solutions and create pathways towards robust solutions.

The research process has been participatory, and it involved, apart from site interviews, engagement via a photographic exhibition, during an outreach and engagement event, of the researched sites in one of the academic institutions of the authors. A total of 12 women were interviewed and the expert’s workshop was attended by 12 experts.

Social innovation can promote agile processes to prototyping services, involving multiple sectors and stakeholders through open ecosystems. For urban settlements undergoing rapid expansion, social innovation can help communities and governments to build resilience in the face of resource gaps – often making use of advancements in technology and improvements from other disciplines (Horgan and Dimitrijevic, 2019). For the unplanned urban areas around Greater Cairo, input from different knowledge areas can offer valuable contributions; in terms of the project and the study that we report on in this paper, the contributing areas included architecture and urban planning, as well as women-led entrepreneurship targeting economic growth, social and community impacts.

In this paper, we demonstrate the significance of a transdisciplinary framework based on social innovation, for the study of women-led entrepreneurship as a response to water-based challenges within an urban settlement. The creation of such a framework can be a significant contribution to conceptualise, examine and respond to “wicked challenges” of urban sustainability. This paper also believes that the readership of the journal will be subsequently benefitting from another way to conceptualise the interplay of theoretical perspectives at the level of organisations and the individual to support the inquiry into such challenges.

Online learning is developing rapidly in higher education. As a result, in the Initial Teacher Education Division at The University of Northampton, UK, academics have experimented with methods to embed blogs and online communities into courses to enhance learning for staff and students. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper critically analyses the approach used to examine media-rich multimodal content that was shared through these tools.

The paper models how blogs and communities have enhanced interdisciplinary subject teaching, staff development and student engagement. This is achieved by sharing case studies from the courses which model the strengths and limitations of practices adopted.

Focused discussion demonstrates how reflexivity, communities of practice and experimentation with technological teaching strategies fuel the learning that occurred.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the value of approaches to mental health based on creative practice in the humanities and arts, and explore these in relation to the potential contribution to mutual recovery.

The paper is a conceptual analysis and literature review.

Recovery can embrace carers and practitioners as well as sufferers from mental health problems. Divisions tend to exist between those with mental health needs, informal carers and health, social care and education personnel. Mutual recovery is therefore a very useful term because it instigates a more fully social understanding of mental health recovery processes, encompassing diverse actors in the field of mental health. Research demonstrates the importance of arts for “recovery orientated mental health services”, how they provide ways of breaking down social barriers, of expressing and understanding experiences and emotions, and of helping to rebuild identities and communities. Similarly, the humanities can advance the recovery of health and well‐being.

The notion of mutual recovery through creative practice is more than just a set of creative activities which are believed to have benefit. The idea is also a heuristic that can be useful to professionals and family members, as well as individuals with mental health problems themselves. Mutual recovery is perhaps best seen as a relational construct, offering new opportunities to build egalitarian, appreciative and substantively connected communities – resilient communities of mutual hope, compassion and solidarity.

The main research questions critically examine online videos that draw attention to a local community of musical practice, noticing how these can potentially be included within the tourism promotion strategies. This paper develops a case study of four videos realised by the Louth County Board of the organisation Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) in Co. Louth, Ireland, as a part of the FleadhFest 2021 initiative. It highlights the role that virtual spaces have in enhancing a sense of belonging to a music/festival community as well as the possibility that visual and audio supports have in promoting and celebrating a destination and its cultural features.

The analysis involves a netnographic examination of these videos (Janta, 2017), informed by the concept of “tourist gaze” (Urry, 1990; 2002) and influenced by film-induced tourism studies (Beeton, 2005).

Results show how festival and event organisers responded to COVID-19 social restrictions by creating a virtual space for celebrating music heritage and local musicscape, placing an emphasis on local musical scene.

The research aims to inform future developments in how the organisation operates within and engages with virtual space, its members and a wider audience.

This is the first study to consider the virtual activities of CCÉ from an ethnomusicological as well as tourism, perspective.