Are we allowed to use fictional vignettes in cultural geographies?

Abstract

Draft; final version published as:C. Rabbiosi, A. Vanolo (2017) 'Are we allowed to use fictional vignettes in cultural geographies? ', cultural geographies, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 265-278. AbstractFictional vignettes are narrative texts that academic researchers may invent in order to illustrate arguments or to present their research outcomes; they are stories or situations that do not strictly report factual realities observed by the author, but that, in any case, implement the heuristics for the arguments that the author wants to raise. Although there are several works in social sciences taking advantage of fictional narratives, geographers have started mobilising invented stories in their writings mostly recently, provided that a variety of creative methodologies had been introduced. The aim of this article is to present fictional vignettes as an integrative research method and writing technique, while discussing potential opportunities and limits relating to their use in geographical research, particularly within the recent rise of various 'creative methodologies' in cultural geographies.

Aesthetics, verisimilitude and user engagement: reporting findings through fictional accounts in qualitative inquiry

“…(Wade, 2009). Rabbiosi and Vanolo (2017) compare this kind of correspondence to the ways that Weberian Ideal Type's work as generalised descriptions of social phenomena without reference to specific instances. The authors suggest that these ideal types function as metaphors and, like metaphors, are not 'true' in the sense of corresponding to some specific reality, but have analytic value in showing the general character of some feature of the world.…”

“…"in producing fictional vignettes, their logics and rationales have to be fully discussed, the balance between the fictional and observed data has to be clearly stated, and the overall result has to be judged in terms of its effectiveness and usefulness, rather that [sic] realism or, even more, adherence to a supposed reality." (Rabbiosi and Vanolo, 2017).…”

Listening otherwise: attuning to the caring-chaos of a refugee and asylum drop-in service

“…This approach resonates with Phillip Vannini's understanding of a 'non-representational ethnography' 30 that develops strategies for understanding the momentary, embodied and non-discursive dimensions of spatiality and temporarily lived experience, by 'building on empirical narratives that "make sense" within the world encountered'. 31 Moreover, I am interested in exploring listening as a method that skews subject and object: through listening, the 'ethnographer' finds themselves in a paradoxical position of being with and being apart from the social field. 32 Sound courses through our bodies whether we like it or not, entwining the researcher in the routines of the drop-in that can make us account for the insider-outsider dynamics of our participation.…”

Living in a fly-over world: on moving in a heterogeneous navigational culture

“…Note that these are factual observations and not fictional vignettes. 65 Each of these examples at first sight appears to be trivial and certainly too mundane to write about in an academic paper. But when looking closer, this anecdotal material suggests a wider relevance of thinking about the geometrical grid of international travel through the sky above and how this is connected to our moving along and finding our way on the ground below.…”