Book Description

"Participatory video is generally referred to as a process in which participants work together to create a video about their common experiences as a way of inquiring into challenges in their lives. While media activists, policy makers, and academics have used various techniques of participatory video to bring about change in participants' lives, participatory video, as a research tool, has yet to be studied. I explore its methodological complexity based on a participatory video project I conducted with eight adults for 11 weeks on a topic they chose. Building on John Fiske's cultural studies framework, I analyze the process of the project, the participants' experiences, and my own experience in the project. In doing so, I test and suggest a method of analyzing participatory video. The notion of reflexivity is central to my analysis. A typical understanding of reflexivity, however, is problematic to participatory research because it focuses on researchers, disregarding the important role participants' reflexivity also plays in the process of inquiry. Hence, I argue that it is crucial to understand participants' reflexivity. My thesis is based on this argument. The purpose of the thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of participatory video vis-à-vis the notion of reflexivity and vice versa. In my findings I emphasize three aspects of participatory video: (1) Participatory video can bring to light grassroots experiences. However it may overlook unequal power distribution among participants. Hence, I argue that researchers may need to intervene actively in the process of making the video, and yet act cautiously in order to prompt the participants to reflect on their assumptions more deeply and to safeguard against silencing marginalized voices; (2) Participatory video can allow participants to experience incidental, social, and critical learning. Based on this observation, I call for attention to the potential of participatory video as a tool for adult learning; and (3) The researcher's positionality matters in conducting participatory video. It can interfere with the process of knowledge construction and influence the participants' experiences with projects. The thesis sheds light on the concept of positionality in the study of participatory video." --