Public Health, Humanities and Magical Realism: A Creative-Relational Approach to Researching Human Experience

This book argues that the public health evidence-base should include creative and relational data about people's lived experiences, as traditional methodologies and conceptualizations of evidence can exacerbate health inequalities by excluding and misrepresenting minorities. It offers a methodological evaluation framework to measure the impacts of creative community engagement and demonstrates how to design studies, make recommendations, and adapt services that are aligned with the views and experiences of those living on the margins and beyond.

Format: Hardback
Length: 178 pages
Publication date: 29 July 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book advocates for a significant re-conceptualization of the public health evidence-base to encompass a wide range of creative and relational data about people's lived experiences that cannot be obtained through the biomedical approach to generating and utilizing evidence. Drawing from the authors' ethical, ontological, and epistemological dilemmas when studying controversial topics, as well as their methodological evaluation framework to assess the impacts of creative community engagement, the book argues that traditional methodologies and conceptualizations of evidence have the potential to exacerbate health inequalities by excluding and misrepresenting minorities. Fantastical realities based on 'truthful research findings' are intertwined with traditional public health approaches through artistic engagement with so-called 'hard-to-reach groups.' The author reflects on how the breadth of the population is inadequately reflected, which threatens the validity and generalizability of public health research and decision-making. Through different ways of knowing (epistemology) and different ways of being (ontology), this book demonstrates how to design studies, make recommendations, and adapt services that are aligned with the views and experiences of those living on the margins and beyond. As such, it is an essential read for public health researchers and students.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032051895