Participatory thick descriptions: a collaborative and reflective approach

ABSTRACT Thick descriptions, or densely textured facts, rely heavily on the articulated reflections of participants, however, there are few methodical approaches to thick description that maximize participant reflection for deeper and more meaningful descriptions. This article explores participatory methods of thick description for a collaborative, co-constructed meaning-making process between researchers and co-researcher participants using an exemplar study that examines how a community arts organization defines and describes social capital as contextualized in their environment. A four-phase participatory thick description method is developed using an exemplar project with a non-profit community arts organization that explored their meaning-making of social capital. The four phases are pre-study tasks of examining researcher positionality and role, collective reflection, reflective interviewing, and integration of thick descriptions across co-researcher participants. The significance of this study is the use of multi-layered reflective practices for richer and more contextualized thick descriptions and a collaborative approach that elevates the voice of co-researcher participants to limit the subjective interjections of the researcher. Limitations and future directions of the participatory thick description method are discussed.