The Arts and Qualitative Inquiry: A Dialogic and Interpretative Zone

The notion of zone implies dynamic processes—exchange, transaction, transformation, and intensity, socially and historically situated. The QI Congress provides such a zone in which the traditional role of the researcher as a lone, isolated figure working independently can be reimagined as dialogic and collaborative. In this special issue, the intersection of the arts and qualitative research is explored as providing a common structure for researchers from multiple disciplines to examine a new social phenomenon, the affordances and problematic of arts-based research (ABR), arts as a form of spirituality across cultures, arts as generating data collection tools toward integration among disciplines, and the use of artistic and kinesthetic sensibilities beyond text to promote a dialogue between artists and researchers. The arts, which traditionally have been marginalized in academic discourses, are embraced by the QI Congress, allowing for new interpretive zones of understanding through performative practices.