Around the World in an Insta(Group): The Potentialities of an Arts-based Online Method

Abstract

This article outlines an innovative method involving an Instagram private chat group with participants from around the world. We illustrate how qualitative methods and arts-based methods in an asynchronous online environment can be useful across disciplines. We analyze the experience of running a two-month-long discussion about reading bestselling fiction with an international group of 16 Gen Z readers to foreground key potentialities of the method. We argue that the flexibility, co-production, and transnational critique aspects in the research process allow researchers to employ a feminist research methodology leading to rich experiences for both the participants and the researcher(s).