Sex workers and their stories: using timelines as a creative method in research involving underserved populations

Researchers may often find it challenging to gather data with underserved populations, even when using traditional qualitative methods. They may also be at risk of further entrenching the hegemony of the dominant narrative, silencing participants' experiences and further marginalising and excluding those most in need. Timelines and other creative methods are useful, sensitive tools that combine flexibility and malleability with an ethical appeal, such as feminist ethics of care. Researchers can use them to gather data from participants experiencing inequalities and trauma.

To outline the value of timelines as a method in nursing research.

This article considers feminist values, power dynamics and the ethics of using timelines when gathering data. It illustrates these using the example of a study involving female sex workers.

Creative methods minimise the ways in which researchers control the production of data and enable participants to choose how they narrate complex and traumatic experiences. Researchers can combine them with deep, ongoing reflexivity to address some of the power imbalances inherent in research and mitigate epistemic violence.

There are strong and evidence-based ethical motivations for conducting research using creative methods. Having a flexible approach to their application and use in practice is key, as not everyone wants to engage with creative methods, or they may not wish to engage with that specific method at that time. Creative methods can serve as vital anchor points in your interviews with participants and are as much about the process as they are about the output.