Drawing your way into ethnographic research: comics and drawing as arts-based methodology

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article outlines an attempt to use drawing and comics as an arts-based research methodology during an ethnographic project relating to sport and social change in South Africa. The use of drawing within fieldnotes has a long history, and more recently the use of comics as a form of research and dissemination has received increased attention. The purpose of this article is to introduce the potential that drawing and comic making provide as unique arts-based methodologies within ethnographic research. Through examples of comic vignettes, comic panels, and drawings, I illustrate how drawing(s) operated as a site of departure and arrival. My drawings and comics began to trace the entanglements that inevitably develop through ethnographic research. As I started to trace the lines of myself and community members moving and playing within soccer spaces, I was drawn into dialogue and relationship with people, places, and histories.