Data Becomings: Bridge/Bridging Data-Trails in Qualitative Inquiry

This article plays with research-creation possibilities to interrogate data, data trails, and their becomings in qualitative inquiry. It arises through the inspiration of the authors' experiences in experimenting with data-trails: a specific mode of thinking-doing for speculative research-creation possibilities. By placing these experiences alongside conventional discourses and protocols of research practice, the article ponders on a series of ethico-onto-epistemological questions about data becomings. We wonder about how qualitative researchers find and trace interconnected data? We approach this timeless question and adopt the concept of bridge/bridging to help us in considering the ontological sites that such data-trail research-creation possibilities afford.

Automated summary

This article explores the possibilities of research-creation in investigating the significance and transformations of data in qualitative research, as well as the analysis of data trails. By comparing conventional research practices with experimental thinking approaches, the article raises a series of ethical, ontological, and epistemological questions about the becoming of data.