The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts

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Arts-Based Research as a Way to Bridge Emotional Versus Social Knowledge of Community Workers


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1 Ben Gurion University, Israel
     

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Poverty as expressed in food insecurity may negatively affect the victims' physical, social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. This article focuses on the discrepancy between the cognitive structural explanation of food insecurity, and the emotional impact that students hold in relation to this social problem, as shown in their images of poverty. This discrepancy is accessed through arts-based research that uses a projective drawing and phenomenological explanation to reveal these gaps between what social practitioners know and what they feel in relation to food insecurity and hunger. The above paper will show that that while the students may verbally "speak" systemic or socially critical theories of poverty and of food insecurity, they "draw" food insecurity through fatalistic, psychological, and individualistic theories of poverty, or experience and draw dissonance between what they want to draw (what they think) and what they end up drawing (what they experience). The article shows how images can help reveal this gap between what is thought and what is felt, so as to enable social practitioners more self-awareness as a base for effective interventions in relation to poverty.

Keywords

Arts-Based Research, Cognitive Versus Emotional Stands, Poverty, Macro Social Work, Evaluation.
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  • Arts-Based Research as a Way to Bridge Emotional Versus Social Knowledge of Community Workers

Abstract Views: 270  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Roni Kaufman
Ben Gurion University, Israel
Ephrat Huss
Ben Gurion University, Israel
Dorit Segal-Engelchin
Ben Gurion University, Israel

Abstract


Poverty as expressed in food insecurity may negatively affect the victims' physical, social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. This article focuses on the discrepancy between the cognitive structural explanation of food insecurity, and the emotional impact that students hold in relation to this social problem, as shown in their images of poverty. This discrepancy is accessed through arts-based research that uses a projective drawing and phenomenological explanation to reveal these gaps between what social practitioners know and what they feel in relation to food insecurity and hunger. The above paper will show that that while the students may verbally "speak" systemic or socially critical theories of poverty and of food insecurity, they "draw" food insecurity through fatalistic, psychological, and individualistic theories of poverty, or experience and draw dissonance between what they want to draw (what they think) and what they end up drawing (what they experience). The article shows how images can help reveal this gap between what is thought and what is felt, so as to enable social practitioners more self-awareness as a base for effective interventions in relation to poverty.

Keywords


Arts-Based Research, Cognitive Versus Emotional Stands, Poverty, Macro Social Work, Evaluation.

References