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This chapter examines how hospitality and tourism researchers can use ‘expressive text’ (or writing) to express the lived quality of an experience in order to ‘show what an experience is really like’ rather than ‘tell what it is like’. Expressive text refers to written language forms such as narrative, poetry and metaphor that can be used as tools in research to vividly represent the meaning and feeling conveyed in an experience. The expressive text-based approach to researching lived experience provides a textual link between experience and its expression. For this reason, it is especially useful when working with lived experience accounts of phenomenological and hermeneutic research.

The expressive text-based approach suggested here is still a relatively under explored arena within hospitality and tourism research. As a relatively under explored arena, the rich insightful knowledge that can be gained from understanding practitioner experience is rarely a central focus of scholarly writings about the workplace in hospitality and tourism contexts. However, in order to be fully appreciated as a discipline in its own right and to advance knowledge of the field, understanding the typical and significant attributes of hospitality and tourism work will be decidedly helpful.

One of the difficulties of working with lived experience accounts is finding a suitable research approach that helps to both retain the lived elements of the experience and ensure the rigour of the inquiry. An expressive text-based methodological framework that has a phenomenological and hermeneutic philosophical underpinning is argued to be suitable for this purpose. Therefore, the focus of this study is to discuss such a methodology and explain the reasons for its content, style and structure in researching lived experience. The approach that is proposed here consists of a five-tiered textually expressive methodology that is employed to contextualise, portray and interpret the lived experience meanings in order to understand the significance of the experience in relation to relevant discourses in hospitality and tourism studies, and to consider implications for policy and professional practice. The guiding questions of the five-tiered framework cover the following issues: (1) What is the context of the lived experience? (2) What is the lived experience of this practice like? (3) What is the meaning of this experience for the practitioner? (4) What is the significance of the experience in contributing to the advancement of knowledge within the field? (5) What are the implications for practice and professional development?

To illustrate uses of this methodology in research, the study here includes an example showing portrayals and interpretations of the typical and significant lived nature of hospitality reception work. This shows and communicates the full meaning of the episode, circumstances or situation. The chapter then concludes with some reflections on benefits as well as tensions in working within an expressive text-based phenomenological and hermeneutic framework.

This paper aims to present a working model for using experiential knowledge in the work of lived experience practitioners within the mental health field.

The working model is constructed from three key elements, namely, components of lived experience, the Library of Life Experiences and the NISE technique for sharing experiential knowledge (NISE: need identification; inner identification; sharing experiential knowledge and interpersonal encounter).

The model will be described, followed by central themes that emerged from a pilot course that was taught in Israel in 2019 to a group of peers working in the mental health system. The central themes were: developing peer identity; sharing peer language; internalizing the working model; understanding the peer role; and awakening social consciousness.

The original working model and training course were co-produced and co-conducted by peer specialists and mental health professionals, for the use of lived experience practitioners.

Exposing the hidden lives of female public relations (PR) practitioners requires deep connection with those lives. Stories need to be uncovered, interrogated, and ultimately told, to shine a light on the lived experiences of those working in PR. The methods used to collect these stories require deep immersion in the field and the ethnographic method is ideal for this. Ethnographic research methods have long been utilised to gain insights into the lived experiences of individuals and communities. This chapter provides an understanding of the strengths and limitations of ethnographic research methods in capturing the nuances of women's experiences of working in PR.

Organisational ethnography is an established field in business studies and has been used to investigate disciplines cognate to PR, including advertising and media, but, to date, has failed to be fully explored in PR research. This chapter examines the potential for ethnography to open new areas of PR theory and considers its potential as a means of bridging the gap between PR theory and practice.

Ethnography is not without its limitations; key concerns surround objectivity, the role of the researcher, and that of the participant, and ethics. Nonetheless, this method would appear to offer huge potential for the study of PR practices; the diverse nature of the sector makes it a rich area to study.

This chapter explores the potential of this method to offer an opportunity to investigate areas such as working practices, ethics in practice, power, gender, diversity, and culture.

Team integration is a concept that has been widely fostered in alliances as a way of improving collaborative relationships between diverse organisations. However, deeper insights into the practice of high levels of team integration remain elusive. The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of team integration through the “lived experience” of practitioners in an alliance.

This study employed a qualitative research methodology. Using a phenomenological examination, via the lived experiences of 24 alliance practitioners, the practice of alliance team integration has been investigated based on the key indicators that foster alliance team integration: team leadership, trust and respect, single team focus on project objectives and key results areas, collective understanding, commitment from project alliance board, single and co-located alliance team, and free flow communication.

The findings highlight that alliancing gives the project teams’ flexibility to change and adapt, to advance the collaborative environment and that successful integration of multi-disciplinary project teams requires commitment to the identified indicators. These findings have led to the development of a framework of leadership for successful alliance integrated practices. It is proposed that to influence the leadership for the purpose of achieving successful integration practice, a team-centric approach is required which includes four elements: task and relationship-oriented behaviours; collaborative learning environments; cultivating cross-boundary networks; and collaborative governance.

As team integration is the central tenet of alliance projects, greater understanding regarding the leadership of integration practice is of value in leveraging the benefits of outstanding performance. Also, the results of the study are expected to be informative and provide insight for alliance teams to help them proactively recognise how the context of integrated teams is influenced by specific indicators, impacting on the extent of integration practice.

This study contributes to the current body of knowledge concerning the insights from the “lived experience” of alliance teams towards achieving a greater understanding of what contributes to the leadership of successful integration practices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lived experience of the project leader and generate additional insight into the relationship between the social and technical aspects of the actual practice of project leadership, focussing on a particular type of project that is prevalent in practice but largely overlooked in mainstream literature. It is referred to here as a “loosely coupled transient” (LCT) project.

Using an exploratory, inductive approach, the research investigates the lived experience of 30 project management (PM) practitioners to try to deepen the empirical and conceptual insight into the nature of the leadership challenge and what it takes to be successful in the LCT project setting. The research design includes an extra data-collection phase to allow the initial findings and their interpretation to be further validated and refined in the field.

The empirical findings highlight the importance of three socio-behavioural roles: context building, culture-bridging and political brokering, in addition to the more traditional technical coordinating role, and examine their implications for future research and practice.

The findings emerging from this study are based on the insights provided by 35 exploratory interviews and while they provide the authors with useful insights into the socio-behavioural roles that practitioners consider necessary, they should now be further examined through more focussed, systematic research.

This study points up that project leadership requires new forms of ability and intelligence described in this study as contextual, cultural and political forms of intelligence. Practitioners suggest the findings have a potential usefulness in the selection and training of future project managers.

The study attempts to provide a fresh perspective on social phenomena that are context specific, of relevance to PM practice and of interest to the academic community. It contributes to previous PM research by furthering the analysis of actual PM practice that takes place within the project setting by giving explicit consideration to the importance of understanding the contextual, cultural and political influences on leadership in the project setting.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the historic policy context and social implications of the diagnosis of personality disorder and also consider formulation-based and trauma-informed understandings of distress.

Ongoing changes to (and splits between) medical understandings of what is being labelled as personality disorder have eroded the label’s cultural capital, adding weight to lived-experience-led calls to Drop the Disorder (Watson, 2019). This paper explores the impact and implications of the historic policy and practice context through a lived experience lens.

Such diversity of views in the lived experience and medical communities on personality disorder has allowed alternatives to diagnostically informed understandings of distress (such as formulation-based and trauma-informed approaches) to gain traction with practitioners (Bloom and Farragher, 2013; Johnstone and Boyle, 2020). The broader assimilation of these alternative perspectives into dominant medical ideology is evidenced by the fact that the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) is now also exploring alternatives to diagnosis (2023). This suggests even more change ahead for how we understand people and their relationships with trauma and distress.

This paper discusses UK policy and does not include broader global policies.

This paper would be helpful for any student interested in where the ideas that underpin personality disorder diagnosis stemmed from and why so many lived experience practitioners and experts by profession question the diagnosis' legitimacy.

As the RCP is now considering alternatives to diagnosis, it is even more critical that practitioners are aware of the competing narratives surrounding this contested diagnosis – as the author believes this will promote more compassionate, trauma-informed working practices.

This is the author’s own work and includes not only the RCP position change but also directly quotes Professor Tyrer (who wrote the International Classification of Diseases 11), giving his views on the changed RCP position, as he recently presented at a conference here in Cornwall. The author is a part of Lighthouse peer support group and wrote this paper as preparation for a Participatory Action Research project they are planning, where they will evaluate the Sanctuary Approach with their membership to create a lived experience-designed trauma-informed charter. Before starting that work, the author wanted to better understand the historic policy context and created this paper to fill that need.

This study aims to report on the experience of using a strengths-based, solution-focused methodology for co-producing a gender-informed drug treatment service using an appreciative inquiry (AI) model (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 1987).

An AI model was used to facilitate a series of six workshops. Participants had a mixture of lived experience (n = 4, experience of accessing drug and alcohol services) and learned experience (n = 3, practitioners from a local drug service), with co-facilitators from Fulfilling Lives Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham (n = 2). The aim of the workshops was to understand barriers, identify solutions and co-create a service design offer. Data for this paper was collected using a series of focus groups, reflection logs and surveys, which sought to understand participants’ perceptions of using this model and the impact it had on them. Data was analysed manually using coded thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

Participants successfully co-created a women’s access to drug and alcohol service design and recommendations. Participants found the process of using the model a very positive experience with benefits, including increased self-esteem, group cohesion and balanced power. This study provides evidence of the AI model as an effective, practical tool for co-production work.

This case study considers a shift in approach to co-producing services with both lived and learned experience, which moves away from problem-focused consultations, towards solution-focused co-design. Consequently, providing evidence to support such a change.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the arguments developed in the PhD thesis and also to outline the journey and context from which the thesis emerged.

This paper provides a summary of key arguments in the thesis. It also provides reflections on the process of developing the thesis.

This PhD by publication process demonstrates how new philosophical thinking can contribute to the discipline literature, methodological advancements and also produce a practice tool.

Provision of a personal account of the PhD by publication journey and summary of the thesis: “Exploring the ‘lived experience’ of project work with Continental philosophical perspectives”.

The aim of this study is to explore the dual-experiences of AN recovered service providers. Prognoses for anorexia nervosa (AN) and anorexia nervosa-like (AN-like) presenting patients remain poor, and notably, no current treatment approach is reliably successful. Past research into AN has focused on singular experiences, those of either AN patients or those of practitioners providing treatment, but has yet to explore the experiences of recovered AN service users now working as AN service providers.

In this study, four UK-based female participants shared their dual experiences of treatment for AN or AN-like presentations through individual semi-structured interviews. Data collection and analysis were conducted in accordance with an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology.

Analysis revealed four primary themes, including barriers to accessing services; the impact of treating professionals’ approaches; displacement of responsibility for treating AN; and the value of dual-experience of AN.

This study focuses on AN and AN-like presentations and does not address the other eating disorders. Additionally, only female-identifying individuals volunteered their participation. As such, this study is notably lacking the voices of individuals of other genders.

Participant narratives suggest that improvements in the treatment of AN lie in improving professionals’ understanding of – and compassion towards – this patient group to optimise the power of the therapeutic relationship across all AN-treating professions.

Participants revealed a pervasive misunderstanding of AN among treating professionals that is hindering patients’ treatment and suggested that lived experience can be an asset in a professional context.

Individuals with dual experiences of AN can provide a unique and reflective insight into experiences of treatment through their combined personal and professional expertise and elucidate the experiences that both helped and hindered their own recovery.

This discursive paper presents a lived experience leadership model as developed as part of the Activating Lived Experience Leadership (ALEL) project to increase the recognition and understanding of lived experience leadership in mental health and social sectors. The model of lived experience leadership was formulated through a collaboration between the South Australian Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network and the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research and Education Group.

As one of the outcomes of the ALEL research project, this model incorporates findings from a two-year research project in South Australia using participatory action research methodology and cocreation methodology. Focus groups with lived experience leaders, interviews with sector leaders and a national survey of lived experience leaders provided the basis of qualitative data, which was interpreted via an iterative and shared analysis. This work identified intersecting lived experience values, actions, qualities and skills as characteristics of effective lived experience leadership and was visioned and led by lived experience leaders.

The resulting model frames lived experience leadership as a social movement for recognition, inclusion and justice and is composed of six leadership actions: centres lived experience; stands up and speaks out; champions justice; nurtures connected and collective spaces; mobilises strategically; and leads change. Leadership is also guided by the values of integrity, authenticity, mutuality and intersectionality, and the key positionings of staying peer and sharing power.

This model is based on innovative primary research, which has been developed to encourage understanding across mental health and social sectors on the work of lived experience leaders in seeking change and the value that they offer for systems transformation. It also offers unique insights to guide reflective learning for the lived experience and consumer movement, workers, clinicians, policymakers and communities.