The performance of oneself through visuals in interviews: Queering the work-life binary

Abstract

This chapter addresses the discursive reproduction of the work-versus-life binary by qualitative and quantitative research methods commonly used to study work-life balance. It draws on the work of Judith Butler to advocate a performative ontology and the use of visual research methods to study how participants perform themselves beyond their narrative inscription in the work-life binary. Through two illustrations, we show how visuals offer an anti-narrative space through which more complex subjectivities can emerge. When participants are asked reflect on their visual and narrative performance, the cracks between their own complexity and their narrative inscription in the work-versus-life binary can become visible. This allows them to deconstruct and queer the work-life binary and perform different, more entangled, subjectivities.