Material Methods: Researching and Thinking with Things

Material Methods brings together resources for researchers investigating both the material, as well as the social world through material objects we design, buy, make, exchange and collect.

It covers the whole research process, from theoretical underpinnings, selection of methods and their possible uses, as well as representing and analysing data. It introduces students and researchers to the wide range of cross-disciplinary methods which help us to approach and interpret material culture and materials. The book also provides students and researchers with the tools to critically reflect upon pre-existing methods to see their limitations as well as possibilities, and apply them to their own research practice.

Sophie Woodward is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester; she carries out research into material culture, fashion and everyday lives and has a particular interest in creative qualitative methodologies. She is the author of serval books including Why Women Wear What they Wear (2007), Blue Jeans: the Art of Ordinary (with Daniel Miller, 2012) and Why Feminism Matters (2009 with Kath Woodward). She is currently carrying out research into Dormant Things (things that have accumulated in domestic spaces) which explore the hidden lives of things that are not currently being used through multiple material methods. She has a parallel interest in feminist theory and is currently writing a book on Birth and Death (with Kath Woodward).