Main description:

Health geographers are increasingly turning to a diverse range of interpretative methodologies to explore the complexities of health, illness, space and place to gain more comprehensive understandings of well-being and broader social models of health and health care. Drawing upon postmodernism, many health geographers are concerned with issues of representation, the body and health care policy. Also related to an emphasis on the body is the growing literature in feminist health geography that investigates the metaphorical, physical and emotional challenges of the body and disease.

Reflecting these interests, the chapters in this book set out the host of creative qualitative methods being used to explore the psychosocial experiences of individuals more directly, using such traditional methods as in-depth interviews and group discussions, participant observation, diaries and discourse analysis, but also more novel techniques such as 'go-along interviews', reflexive writing, illustrations, and photographic techniques. There are several areas of qualitative research unique to geographers which figure prominently in this volume including: health and place, comparative case study analysis, and qualitative approaches to the use of geographic information systems (GIS). This collection brings together a wide range of empirical concerns related to questions of health and shines a light on the diversity of qualitative methods in practice. Illustrating how qualitative methodologies are used in diverse health contexts this book fills an important niche for health geographers but will have wide appeal to health and geographic researchers.

Contents:

1. Praxis in Qualitative Health Geography

Jamie Baxter and Nancy E. Fenton

PART 1: REPRESENTATION, ETHICS AND POWER

2. Placing Narrative Correspondence in the Geographer's Toolbox: Insights from Care Research in New Zealand

Christine Milligan

3. Photo Elicitation as Method: A Participatory Approach

Tara Coleman

4. Ethics and Activism in Environment and Health Research

Sarah A. Mason, Chad Walker, Jamie Baxter, Isaac Luginaah

PART 2: REPRESENTATION, SELF AND COMMUNITY

5. Writing Illness through Feminist Autobiographical Analysis

Pamela Moss

6. Community Capacity Building through Qualitative Methodologies

Sarah A. Lovell, Mark W. Rosenberg

7. Walking in Their Shoes: Utilizing Go-Along Interviews to Explore Participant Engagement with Local Space

Jennifer Dean

PART 3: REPRESENTATION THROUGH VISUAL MEDIA

8. What Can Participant-Generated Drawing Add to Health Geography's Qualitative Palette?

Stephanie E. Coen

9. Applying Decolonizing Methodologies in Environment-Health Research: A Community-Based Film Project with Anishinabe Communities

Chantelle A.M. Richmond

10. Not Another Interview! Using Photovoice and Digital Stories as Props in Participatory Health Geography Research

Heather Castleden, Vanessa Sloan Morgan, Aaron Franks

11 Media and Framing: Processes and Challenges

S. Michelle Driedger, Theresa Garvin

PART 4: (NON)REPRESENTATION, AFFECT AND SOCIAL LIFE

12. From The Pump to Senescence: Two Musical Acts of More-Than-Representational 'Acting Into' and 'Building New' Life

Gavin J. Andrews, Eric Drass

13. Managing and Overcoming the Challenges of Qualitative Research on Palliative Family Caregivers

Allison Williams

14. Informal Caregiving on the Move: Examining the Experiences of Canadian Medical Tourists' Caregiver-Companions from Patients' Perspectives

Valerie A. Crooks, Victoria Casey, Rebecca Whitmore

15 Conclusion

Robin Kearns