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Emancipatory and Participatory Methodologies in Peace, Critical, and Community Psychology pp 107–117Cite as

Threading Life Stories: Embroidery as an Engaged Method

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Part of the book series: Peace Psychology Book Series ((PPBS))

Abstract

The social sciences has long relied on spoken language as a way of making sense of people’s lived realities. Because of limitations of the spoken language, it becomes crucial to think of the role that art as creative resources to storytelling and knowledge production might offer, and the power of embodied sharing through embroideries as a form of artistic expression. This chapter considers embroideries as a liberatory and engaged method that acknowledges various ways in which stories can be told over time, drawing from history and marrying them with the present. We look at the ways in which embroideries allow and offer space for the embodied to be externalised, felt and released onto a canvas that shows the contours, straight lines, holes, and spaces in between. We also speak to some of the challenges that might be experienced when engaging in visual methods such as embroideries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Puleng Segalo

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Michelle Fine

Authors
  1. Puleng Segalo
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  2. Michelle Fine
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Puleng Segalo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mohamed Seedat

  2. South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

    Shahnaaz Suffla

  3. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Daniel J. Christie

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Segalo, P., Fine, M. (2017). Threading Life Stories: Embroidery as an Engaged Method. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Emancipatory and Participatory Methodologies in Peace, Critical, and Community Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63489-0_9

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