This chapter outlines the use of focus groups as methodology for types of research that foreground processes of (1) interaction, exchange, connection and reciprocity between two categories of people, and (2) their perceptions of those processes. Collecting elicited data through the method of focus groups helps in finding answers to research questions that address precisely those aspects: the connection and interaction between respondents (in this case artists and patrons), and their perception of their exchange. The focus group is a form of group interview in which researchers bring several participants together to collectively discuss a certain topic. Conducting focus groups allows researchers to understand not only how separate individuals make sense of the world around them (as conducting research interviews would), but helps to examine how individuals create those meanings and interpretations together, in interaction. It offers the opportunity to study the ways in which individuals collectively make sense of a phenomenon, and how they construct and compare meanings around it. This makes this method very useful for researching aspects of multi-perspectivity, (cultural) difference or diversity, exchange (for instance, between patron and artist, or reader and author), collaboration, friction or conflict.

A follow-up chapter detailing the next methodological steps can be found here:
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/258/oa_edited_volume/chapter/4363631

Onderwerpen: motivatie

Auteur: prof. dr. Helleke van den Braber