More-Than-Human Sport and Movement: A Dialogue on the Possibilities of Creative Methodologies

What are creative more-than-human methodologies, and why might qualitative sport and movement scholars be turning to such approaches? This curated dialogue draws upon an online seminar featuring Diti Bhattacharya, Clifton Evers, Lyndsay Hayhurst, and Emma Rich. In this article, the scholars engage in conversation with each other and the curators (Marianne Clark, Allison Jeffrey, Pirkko Markula, and Holly Thorpe) about the creative possibilities of more-than-human methodologies in an array of geographical, cultural and socio-political contexts. In so doing, this article reveals the many possibilities of engaging in creative processes, including poetry, songwriting, sensory and smell-based methods, and visual and moving practices, for revealing the more-than-human dimensions of sport and physical culture. Drawing upon their own theory-process experiences, the contributors respond to an array of questions, including: What shapes researchers’ journeys towards more-than-human creative research processes? How are these approaches practised? What challenges and opportunities occur leading up to, during, and after use? In so doing, this dialogue article shares some of the key considerations that researchers make at various stages in the research process, and their responsibilities and commitments to communities, universities, funders and more.