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

Have you been improvising methods, or finding yourself favouring site-responsive and apposite approaches over standard ones?

Maybe you’ve been creating new assemblages that generate knowledge in inventive ways, or experimenting with collaborative ethnographies, creating novel research collectives, incorporating novel material objects, or using creative or mobile methods that draw on the resources of your field sites?

Perhaps you just want to hear more about what’s involved with site-responsive and inventive methods from those with insights and stories to share.

If any of this sounds of interest, then we have an upcoming event for you!

The event

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 and the voluntary and nonprofit sectors).

The programme will combine methodological workshops, talks and group discussion to unpack what it means – and takes – to improvise methodologically. As further information about the programme becomes available, we’ll publish it here. Confirmed topics include improvising with collectives, enrolling sensory experiences and objects, and exploring mobile methods.

Through this event, we aim to build a community interested in developing capacity for apposite, situated and sensitive methods in social research. We hope this will also include working together to produce an online collection that showcases, shares and critically appraises improvisation in method.

Register your interest

We encourage interest from all facets of social research. It is free to sign up for the event and funding is available to support attendance. If this sounds like something you’d like to take part in, we’d love to hear from you!

To register your interest and find out more, please contact Sophie Stone (sophie.stone@ed.ac.uk) by 12:00 on Tuesday, 13 May.

Please also include a brief summary (up to 150 words) of your interest or experience (if any) in improvisational or inventive methods to help us build a balanced event.

Further information

The full programme will be published on this page as further details are confirmed.

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