Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In the ongoing discourses around housing and health, the voices of those on the margins are largely absent. This article describes the use of poetry to capture “realities” of marginal housing in Aotearoa/New Zealand from the perspectives of 40 people living in informal dwellings such as sheds, vans, buses, garages, tents, and caravans. The poems combine participants’ words with descriptions of their living situations and complement thematic analysis of in-depth interviews. Feedback from participants has been that their poems accurately represent them and their living situations—and in a form which has meaning for them. Taken as a whole, the poems reveal the diversity of people, perspectives, housing histories, and living situations among the informally housed, emphasizing the complexity of the phenomenon. Presenting findings poetically has allowed voices from the margins to be heard in a wider range of academic, general public, public health, and policy settings.

Keywords

marginal/informal housing housing and health thematic analysis poetic representation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bachelard, G. ( 1994). The poetics of space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Brady, I. ( 2004). In defense of the sensual: Meaning construction in ethnography and poetics. Qualitative Inquiry, 10, 622-644.

Brady, I. ( 2005). Poetics for a planet. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 979-1026.

Briggs, C. ( 2002). Interviewing, power/knowledge, and social inequality . In J. Gubrium & J. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research, context and method (pp. 911-922). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Bruner, J. ( 2003). Making stories: Law, literature, life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chambers, E. ( 2000). Applied ethnography. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 851-869). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Clarke, J. , Febbraro, A. , Hatzipantelis, M. , & Nelson, G. ( 2005). Poetry and prose: Telling the stories of formerly homeless mentally ill people. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, 913-932.

Denzin, N. ( 1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Emmett, C. , Dobbs, D. , Williams, S. , Daaleman, T. ( 2011). "Peace With My Maker": Voices of Seriously Ill African American Elders Regarding Advance Health Care. Qualitative Inquiry 17 (2) 119-125.

10.

Ezzy, D. ( 2002). Qualitative analysis practice and innovation. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

11.

Furman, R. ( 2006). Poetic forms and structures in qualitative health research . Qualitative Health Research, 16, 560-566.

12.

Furman, R. , Lietz, C. , & Langer, C. ( 2006). The research poem in international social work: Innovations in qualitative methodology international. Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(3), 24-34.

13.

Glesne, C. ( 1997). That rare feeling: Re-presenting research through poetic transcription. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 202-221.

14.

Gubrium, J. , & Holstein, J. ( 1997). The new language of qualitative method. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

15.

Kvale, S. , & Brinkmann, S. ( 2008). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

16.

Maines, D. ( 2001). Writing the self versus writing the other: Comparing autobiographical and life history data. Symbolic Interaction , 24(1), 105-111.

17.

Ohlen, J. ( 2003). Evocation of meaning through poetic condensation of narratives in empirical phenomenological inquiry into human suffering. Qualitative Health Research, 13, 557-566.

18.

Poindexter, C. ( 1997). Poetry as data analysis: Listening to the narratives of older HIV-affected caretakers. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 4(3), 22-25.

19.

Richardson, L. ( 1997). Fields of play, constructing an academic life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

20.

Richardson, L. ( 2000a). Evaluating ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 253-255.

21.

Richardson, L. ( 2000b). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 923-948). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

22.

Richardson, L. ( 2002). Poetic representation of interviews. In J. Gubrium & J. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research, context and method (pp. 877-891). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

23.

Stein, H. ( 2003). The inner world of workplaces: Accessing this world through poetry, narrative, literature, music and visual art. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 55(2), 84-93.

24.

Van Manen, M. ( 1997). From meaning to method. Qualitative Health Research, 17, 345-396.

The Heart of the Matter: Using Poetry as a Method of Ethnographic Inquiry to Represent and Present Experiences of the Informally Housed in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References