Material Methods

Sophie Woodward is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester; she carries out research into material culture, fashion and everyday lives and has a particular interest in creative qualitative methodologies. She is the author of serval books including Why Women Wear What they Wear (2007), Blue Jeans: the Art of Ordinary (with Daniel Miller, 2012) and Why Feminism Matters (2009 with Kath Woodward). She is currently carrying out research into Dormant Things (things that have accumulated in domestic spaces) which explore the hidden lives of things that are not currently being used through multiple material methods. She has a parallel interest in feminist theory and is currently writing a book on Birth and Death (with Kath Woodward).

This is the first comprehensive presentation and review of methods for the study of material things that incorporates the advances in material culture studies and a variety of anthropological and sociological developments of recent decades. It has extraordinary breadth including both the planning of research and the presentation of results, alongside considerations of analysis and theory, taken from a broad spectrum between art and science and all delivered in a clear and thoughtful style. There are many original ideas and suggestions for how to proceed. The result will be invaluable for students and researchers wanting to study our ever expanding world of material and visual culture.

• 1 Introduction2 Orienting Yourself to Things3 Object Interviews and Elicitations4 Provocative Methods: Cultural Probes and Arts-based Methods5 Understanding Things-in-Relations: Surface Assemblages, Inventories and Interviews6 Follow the Things7 Ethnographic Approaches8 Analyzing, Writing and Disseminating