Abstract
Recent research into medical decision-making has begun to employ a relational concept of autonomy to investigate the role of the social context and relationships in the decision-making process. However, due to the abstract nature of autonomy, accessing the relational experience of decision-making can be difficult. Hence, this chapter critically reflects on the visual method of inviting participants to draw freestyle “mud maps” as a tool for explicating the dynamic relation between personal choice and social context. Examples for consideration are taken from the project Post-Abortion Narratives shared by Perth Women, in which 20 women participated in an in-depth interview, between February and October 2020.
Considered as a whole, the mud maps give the researcher a view of the social context and a view of the decision-making self. The specific markings on an individual mud map reveal the exercise of agency by the participant and the locus of decision-making power. The visualiszation of relational autonomy through the mud maps extends previous research into medical decision-making processes and gives the researcher and the participant access to perceptions that were previously hidden from view, opening the possibility for more conversation regarding the relational experience of the decision-making process.
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’t Hart, D. (2023). Visualizing Relational Autonomy Through Mud Maps: A Methodological Reflection. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_58-1
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