Deleuze and Guattari have commented on the unreflective usage of terms like ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’. Such words often function as ‘order words’ with performative force but without substantive content, and without the precision that might illuminate what creativity and innovation mean in different contexts. This paper argues that ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ are not intrinsically valuable or good; rather, much of their contemporary currency derives from an insistence on the production of novelty, including new forms of desire, in contemporary capitalism, be it in the fields of technology, fashion or finance. This paper proposes an approach to this theme that does not envision a comfortable co-existence of the needs of individual, society and economy as outlined in the conference programme, but adopts a more critical perspective on such matters.

This first section of the paper provides an introduction to practice-based research in the arts and outlines some of the ways in such an approach it might inform an image of philosophy as a practice of situated, material thinking. This section is predominantly conceptual and involves a careful examination of some of the presuppositions underpinning paradigms of research, in particular in respect of prescribed outcomes, methodology and 'research participants'. It looks to develop a model of ‘empirical’ research in philosophy that is not applied and to trouble some of the presuppositions underpinning empirical research informed by social science research paradigms. It also challenges some of the objectives and presuppositions of participatory action research through a consideration of forms of collective enquiry in social engaged art practice, work at the interface of pedagogy and the arts, and standpoint epistemology. It questions the ways in which the purpose of research is often framed as an activity that provides evidence or knowledge that will support action or intervention, or a methodology that will offer procedures to help solve problems. Instead, research is conceptualised as situated, embodied, material thinking which involves the sharing of practice and ideas through collaborative, creative, negotiated activity. In this respect, we look at how the aims, methods and objectives of educational research might be re-imagined through the lens of practice-based research in the arts.

The second section develops this idea of ‘situated thinking’ by outlining a series of examples of creative methodologies, practices and outcomes in the practice of teaching and researching philosophy in non-traditional learning settings. By reflecting upon the genesis of shared practices of writing, we explore what it means to be a co-researcher, rather than a researched subject. This practice draws upon models of research that invite the collective production of new forms of knowledge and diverse modalities of manifesting ideas. It is informed by socially engaged art practice and the visual arts. Furthermore, it invites further consideration of the site of research and the ways in which different sites, such as the prison, precipitate different forms of philosophical questioning thus creating the conditions for different lines of enquiry simply by virtue of thinking and teaching within a site, such as a prison.

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