Affective Materials: a Processual, Relational, and Material Ethnography of Creative Making in Community and Primary Care Groups.

Desmarais, Sarah (2016) Affective Materials: a Processual, Relational, and Material Ethnography of Creative Making in Community and Primary Care Groups. Doctoral thesis, Falmouth University.

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Abstract / Summary

This research concerns neglected affective, relational, material,and processual dimensions of amateur crafts practice in an arts - for - health context. Existing studies on the social impacts of the participatory arts are prone to blur the borders between advocacy and research, and are vulnerable to accusations of ‘policy - based evidence making’(Belfiore and Bennett, 2007, p.138). Researchers have relied predominantly on interview material and surveys, and there is a lack of fine - grained, long- term, ethnographic work based on participant observation. The distinctive potentials of making in this context, furthermore, have barely been investigated. This thesis addresses these deficits through a sustained ethnographic study of two wellbeing-oriented crafts groups supported by Arts for Health Cornwall(AFHC). One group was based in the community, the other in primary care.

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