Improvising Methods: Experiencing Collaborative, Inventive, Apposite and Original Methods – call for contributions

Have you been improvising methods? Have you favoured site-responsive and apposite approaches over standard ones by creating new assemblages that generate knowledge in inventive ways?

Perhaps you’ve experimented with collaborative ethnographies, formed novel research collectives, incorporated novel material objects, or made mobile methods drawing on the resources of your field sites and questions? Do you have insights or stories to share?

If so, we have an upcoming opportunity that might interest you!

The opportunity

On 9-10 July 2025, NCRM is planning a two-day in-person Innovation Forum to explore what happens when skilled researchers and practitioners are methodologically responsive to their field sites.

The event – to be hosted at The University of Manchester – will build on contemporary interest in engaging with site-responsive and apposite methods from multiple disciplines (including STS, sociology, performing arts and the voluntary and nonprofit sectors). It will combine methodological workshops, talks, and group discussion to unpack what it means - and takes - to improvise methodologically.

Through this, we hope to build a community interested in developing capacity for apposite, situated and sensitive methods in social research, and committed to producing an online collection that showcases, shares and critically appraises improvisation in method.

We’re now looking for speakers interested in running a session or giving a talk about their experiences of using situated and inventive methods. If this sounds like something that would interest you, we’d love to hear from you!

Get in touch

We have limited presenting spaces, so please contact Sophie Stone (sophie.stone@ed.ac.uk) by 12:00 on Thursday, 10 April 2025 to register your interest.

We’re keen to build a balanced programme, so to help us do that, please include a brief 200-word outline of your methodological approach(es) and what it is about them you feel is particularly improvisational or inventive.

We look forward to hearing from some of you soon!

Further information

For anyone interested in attending as a participant only, please note a separate call for participation will be forthcoming later in April.

This page will be updated when further details are available.

The project is being led by Dr Robert Meckin, of NCRM and The University of Manchester, and Dr Sophie Stone, of the University of Edinburgh.