Facet Methodology: The Case for an Inventive Research Orientation

This article puts the case for a new and evolving research approach or orientation – ‘facet methodology’, developed in collaborative team based working at Realities at the Morgan Centre, a ‘Node’ of the UK National Centre for Research Methods. Research fields are seen as constructed through combinations and constellations of facets as we might see in a cut gemstone, where facets refract and intensify light, taking up the background, and creating flashes of depth and colour as well as patches of shadow. In facet methodology, the gemstone is the overall research question or problematic, and facets are conceived as different methodological-substantive planes and surfaces, which are designed to be capable of casting and refracting light in a variety of ways that help to define the overall object of concern by creating flashes of insight. Facets involve different lines of enquiry, and different ways of seeing. The approach aims to create a strategically illuminating set of facets in relation to specific research concerns and questions. The rigour of the approach comes ultimately from researcher skill, inventiveness, creativity, insight and imagination – in deciding how best to carve the facets so that they catch the light in the best possible way. The paper argues that facet methodology can make a contribution to debates about the ‘politics of method’, especially in relation to its emphasis on the significance of flashes of insight rather than the production of ‘maximum data’ of a descriptive kind.