Short abstract:

How can the metaphor of glitter reveal the productive materiality of the research process? This presentation examines what power relationships in the fields of creative labour and sex work have in common, and how a glitter methodology can generate results both meaningful, responsive and impactful.

Long abstract:

How can the metaphor of glitter reveal the productive materiality of the research process? Metaphors carry meanings, highlighting and hiding power dynamics (Cowan and Rault 2022). Glitter, as a metaphor, touches what it isn’t supposed to, sticks to unexpected places, and draws out beautiful and dirty outcomes in weird corners. The metaphor reveals what we mean by speculation as methodology, to connect people in the world in tentative and telling ways, allowing us to conceive of iterative approaches and potential outcomes. As feminist methodology, speculation (Asberg et al., 2015) applies to the conduct of research throughout the process: from the moment of conceiving research questions through to making material changes in society that aim to shift power dynamics. Speculation asserts the importance of examining and enabling diverging material practices (how we do things), political commitments (why we do things the ways we do), and the many specific stances that we each take in relation to the research being conducted (Authors, 2018). This presentation compares two projects. One author examines how a two-year collaboration among six culture policymakers and funders, 12 arts organizations, and 15 academics resulted in three flexible impact assessment tools and approaches. The other author will review a five-year partnership research project, developed from needs in the sex industry to document the role of social media in the recruitment of underage girls. By centering the research participants, the iterative changes in the projects relied on glitter as speculative methodology to ensure the projects were meaningful, responsive and impactful.