On the Method of Touch in Qualitative Inquiry

Touch is the most intimate of the senses. Through it, we find contact, feel, caress, affect, pressure, and convergence. And as has been written, touch is a double gesture whereby in touching we may be touched. Touch may also occur in its physical absence to reveal a sensuality beyond what we feel for. We may experience touch through our eyes, ears, mouth, and nose even. In this way, we may consider touch as a sensibility, a sensuality of sense. And yet, for qualitative inquiry, we do not necessarily talk about touch methodologically. What happens when the aim of research is shifted to touch and being touched? If textuality is oriented toward the convergence of feeling rather than the precision of definition, clarification, or explication? In this manuscript, I explore moments of methodical touch, and how we may specifically understand touch as constitutive of a phenomenological research approach.