A/r/tography, Relational Inquiry, and Complexity Thinking

Citation

Kaitell E & Murray A (2025) A/r/tography, Relational Inquiry, and Complexity Thinking. In: Post-Qualitative Inquiry in Sport, Health and Physical Education. First edition 2026 ed. Advances in Research on Teaching, 50. Leeds: Emerald Insight, pp. 75-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83549-814-9

Abstract
In this chapter, we present a/r/tography as a form of post-qualitative inquiry (PQI) drawing on complexity assumptions to ‘produce different knowledge differently’. A PQI philosophical approach makes for a good ecological fit here, owing to the companionable nature of both expected (known or planned) outcomes and emergent and/or unexpected ones throughout the inquiry journey. As such, the journey remains situated through relational connections, philosophically considered and tension-filled around pressure points where findings are what they are, beyond any perfunctory notions of comprehension. Moving beyond the temptations of attempting to make sense of results is enhanced through embodied practice within the presented learning and teaching exemplification. By embracing uncertainty, non-linearity, and blurred boundaries while resisting dichotomies, this approach invites the researcher to perceive afresh. We suggest that it fosters an openness to the emergence of something potentially different and unexpected without knowing what that might look like. All that stated, a series of useful principles and substantive concepts are introduced and unpacked through a/r/tography. Inquiry practice is explored through the concepts of complexity, crystallisation, and relationality, suspended and depicted through a lens embodying these in context with the co-creating actors (practicing researcher(s) and researching participants). We provide a what-how-with some contextual considerations for prospective practitioners.

Keywords
A/r/tography; knowing; methodology; complexity thinking; sports coaching students and lecturers