Pivotal care practices: Care ethics in inclusive arts-based research with people labelled/with intellectual disability during the COVID-19 pandemic

Erin Kuri; Ann Fudge Schormans

doi:10.1016/j.aip.2022.101920

Pivotal care practices: Care ethics in inclusive arts-based research with people labelled/with intellectual disability during the COVID-19 pandemic

Arts Psychother. 2022 Sep:80:101920. doi: 10.1016/j.aip.2022.101920. Epub 2022 May 13.

Authors

Erin Kuri¹, Ann Fudge Schormans²

Affiliations

¹ McMaster University, School of Social Work, Kenneth Taylor Hall (KTH), Room 319, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4, Canada.
² McMaster University, School of Social Work, Kenneth Taylor Hall (KTH), Room 319, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

In this article, we aim to illustrate how inclusive research can be situated as a form of care work. We do this through addressing tensions and possibilities arising in an ongoing arts-based community-research project - DiStory, Then and Now. We discuss the design of the project along with critical, philosophical, and ethical foundations that drive decision-making and shifts in methodology in response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. We argue that understanding inclusive research as care work is vital, particularly in pandemic times where complex socio-political contexts threaten the social survival of individuals and communities that have traditionally been excluded from knowledge creation projects. Our efforts to counter epistemic violence through practices of care are critically considered alongside tensions emerging in connection with physical contact restrictions combined with technology barriers experienced by many of our group members.

Keywords: Arts-based research; Care ethics; Disability justice; Inclusive research; Intellectual disability; Intersectionality.