Rummaging Around in a Handbag of Caring Research

On Searching for a Pencil and a Moral Compass

Abstract

In this autoethnographic article, the first steps in the process of forming a methodological framework for a caring research practice using drawing as a method are sketched out. By employing the metaphor ‘a handbag of caring research,’ the article underlines the sense of unsystematic ‘rummaging around’ characterizing the initial phases of a research process, but also the idea that caring research can produce important insights despite the sense of messiness. To circumnavigate the complexities arising when drawing and writing are employed as forms of line making, that is, ‘a pencil’, ‘a moral compass’ is needed. More specifically, such a moral compass may be of use not only for the researcher but for all involved in the research process. In this case, the moral compass consists of Tronto’s four analytically separate yet interconnected phases of care - Caring about, Taking Care of, Caregiving, and Care-receiving, and four moral elements of care – attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. A variety of drawing practices are used as inspiration for the development of a tentative methodological framework based on an ethics of care, which can be of use in multiple research fields, including but not limited to the elderly care sector, which is used as the point of departure in this article.