The Rug Methodology in Qualitative Studies

Abstract

This article introduces the Rug Methodology to enhance participation in the qualitative research process. The idea of using rugs to facilitate narratives and expression, and to build reciprocity and activate reflexivity and meaning-making, grew out of a peer-to-peer debate between the authors of this paper on a qualitative research approach for weaving rugs, inventive methods for community action, and drawing as a reflective practice. The article describes the procedure of drawing rugs to encourage people participation. Rugs are everyday objects but they can become a qualitative tool that can be used with in-depth interviews, amplifying the opportunity of collecting participants’ lived experiences, emotions, reflections, and desires. The paper aims to define a framework which connects “to-do activities” with dialogical practices in research and to describe strengths and limitations of drawings rugs in a qualitative research design. Drawings, life events, and stories from the field are described and discussed, showing how everyday objects such as rugs can support expression, participation, reflexivity, and how drawing rugs is suitable for various and vulnerable targets and settings in qualitative studies. Finally, the paper describes the challenges of analysing data from drawings to illustrate lived experiences related to people who stay in rural areas and how they learnt to generate their quality of life.