Dwelling: On the design, implementation and analysis of ‘Story Houses’ as multi-modal research method

ABSTRACT

This article explores how dwelling—a mindful unfolding of thinking and being within the cosmos as a whole—can offer a useful lens to look at the deeper layer of mental health service users’ lived experiences, specifically in regards to the feeling of ‘being at home’. To do so, this article reflects on how dwelling has shaped design of a multi-modal research method—Story Houses—that combines poem writing, working with materials and interviews in a workshop environment. Methodological implications of the method are considered in regards to dwelling in the moment, abstracting time and space, unfolding memories and thinking through metaphors. A study with 18 mental health and wellbeing service users, 10 of which were interviewed, looks into the constant unravelling of seeming opposites like alone/together and explores the fantastical metaphor ‘sea’. It does so by adapting thematic analysis to mirror a dwelling lens. As a method, Story Houses can help create, open up and invite us to dwell in the non-literal, evocative and ephemeral landscapes of human existence.

KEYWORDS:

• Dwelling
• Story House
• multi-modal methods
• metaphors
• time and space

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all of the participants in their bravery to not only participate in this research but to give so much of themselves and trust me with their stories. The author also extends their gratitude to colleagues and friends who have commented on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Zielke

Julia Zielke is multi-disciplinary researcher with an interest in wellbeing inequalities. She currently teaches philosophy, social theory and methods at CODE University, a start-up university  in Berlin focussed on coding and design. Her PhD at the University of Liverpool Management School tackles questions of feminist epistemologies, new commons and their relation to how we come to know about wellbeing. Here she is particularly interested in zooming in and out of different levels of analysis and overcoming discipline-specific reductionism.