Linking research and practice: qualitative social science data collection at a UK comics convention

ABSTRACT

The specific space of a comics convention has affected the design and methods of my qualitative social science research into readers’ readings of British comics. In this early-stage paper I first provide context to the comics convention (in this instance Thought Bubble in Leeds, UK) as a space not only for commerce and networking but also for research fieldwork. I then advance my comics-format questionnaire from my own intertwined identity as a researcher and practitioner, as an innovative data collection method that is well suited to the convention environment. Finally, in the context of the Prevent strategy’s reductive attempt to define Fundamental British Values I question whose voices are heard in defining ‘British comics’, a category for which there is no definitive list. Approaching the study of comics at the level of a medium goes beyond any single genre, format, or fandom affiliation, which have previously operated as constraints. Connecting the study of comics with sociocultural theories of language opens a connection between what readers read and how this influences their own understandings and constructions of national identity. As such I cautiously advance a critical social science approach to researching readers’ choices of what they read.

KEYWORDS:

• British comics
• sociocultural
• reading
• methods
• comics convention
• questionnaire

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplementary data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of my Economic and Social Research Council (North East Doctoral Training Centre) funded PhD.

Notes on contributors

Lydia Wysocki

Lydia Wysocki is an educational researcher and founder of Applied Comics Etc. She is pursuing her PhD in Education at Newcastle University (ESRC/NEDTC funded), which is provisionally titled ‘British comics, British values?’, and explores readers’ readings of specific British comics 2005–17. She also makes comics.