Participatory Video

"In recent projects I have used flip cameras with participants from ethnic minority communities who were recording their experience of adult learning as enrichment. In another project we used more expensive cameras in a health setting in order to examine what the priorities were for service users. The footage has had multiple benefits and we continue to develop the use of visual technologies and methodologies:

• to empower and support the participation of service users and clients;
• to provide evidence and documentation of outputs and project delivery;
• to support the creative personalization of service delivery;
• to inform project evaluation;
• to demonstrate accountability;
• to improve the accessibility and awareness of services;
• to influence policy and strategic development options;
• to foster dialogue between groups of people - both vertical (client to manager) and horizontal (client to service user)

The main body of this short paper evaluates eighteen benefits or advantages associated with auto-ethnographic methodology"

The participatory methodology and the video have shown to be valuable tools for the empowerment of communities and the improvement of communication, promoting horizontality in the decision-making process. This article displays one of the projects which has worked with participatory video in Guatemala with the specific aim of overcoming ethnic discrimination and valueing the cultural wealth of the country. The information collected through personal interviews tries to go deeper in the analysis of the case study of INCREA. In addition to providing a theoretical frame about the video and the participatory method, the text approaches to the inequality and discrimination of the country to facilitate the understanding of the context where the project has been developed. Among the conclusions, it has to be highlighted that personal involvement means to be a factor of continuity. Moreover, the productions and the knowledge multiplication carried out by the participants are shown to support the plurality of the Guatemalan communication context, promoting the democratic system.

O vídeo participativo vem sendo utilizado em muitos países como ferramenta para consulta e
desenho de políticas públicas efetivas. Sua produção baseia-se no registro de narrativas que
promovam o diálogo, respeito, senso de pertencimento e fortaleça a identidade dos povos e
comunidades tradicionais. Neste artigo, a autora defende que as falas que emergem dessas
produções atuam como um importante suporte no processo ensino/aprendizagem, promoção
da Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional – SAN e soberania alimentar, pois fomentam a
compreensão das práticas culturais, conhecimentos tradicionais em torno da produção,
distribuição e consumo de alimentos.

While efforts are increasingly made to democratize research relationships, empower participants and include marginalised voices in agricultural research for development, it is acknowledged that power imbalances in knowledge creation remain integral to researcher-participant relations. Moreover, published results seldom report on the different dimensions that empowerment can encompass. This paper addresses this gap, presenting an original methodological approach for collaborating with smallholder farmers and developing an analytical framework to critically assess associated modalities of empowerment. With the intention of developing more democratic processes of knowledge production to support innovation processes, five smallholder farmer groups were invited to apply for action funds to co-develop innovations to enhance livelihoods. Employing participatory video (PV), groups applied for the grants using a ‘video proposal’. Group members collaboratively produced videos representing their problems, aims and innovation plans. Having conducted participant observation, interviews and feedback sessions with the farmer groups, key findings around group empowerment are presented and reflected upon with regard to the different modalities of “power- to”, “power-with”, “power-within” and “power-over”.

The PV proposal process proved to be a good tool for supporting farmer group capacity building and the development of competencies in relation to farmers’ rural innovation projects. The processes enhanced farmer groups’ “power-to” in terms of planning capacities. This fostered motivation for action and a sense of collective ownership; thus building “power-with” within the groups.  The understanding of power mobilised in this paper enabled us to highlight some context-specific limitations to democratising research relationships and creating more inclusive spaces for participatory action research and rural innovation development. These are related to entrenched socio-cultural power dynamics within the groups and to possibilities to sustain the empowerment process beyond the duration of the project. Nevertheless, funding agencies and local rural development organisations could consider the method discussed in this paper as a valuable tool for assisting marginalised groups in accessing innovation funds.

La experiencia de Video Participativo (VP) que aquí presentamos pone el lente en una comunidad de borde de ladera en la ciudad de Medellín, Colombia:la comuna 8, desde allí una red de organizaciones y colectivos están redefiniendo el significado de habitar, relatar, apropiar, construir, defender y transformar el territorio urbano y la ciudad. La comuna 8 y su red de colectivos y activismo comunitario que en este artículo identificados como “innovaciones de base” (Seyfang y Smith, 2007; Smith et al, 2017), propone una serie de prácticas que, de manera crítica, contiende un discurso hegemónico sobre la innovación urbana que se ha alineado con una visión exclusiva de desarrollo urbano a partir de la idea de ‘internacionalización’2. El proceso de transformación urbana de Medellín le ha hecho merecedora de varios premios de talla mundial, ha llenado de contenido libros, blogs, periódicos locales y globales, y la presenta como modelo para otras ciudades con contextos y características similares. Sin embargo,
en este ejercicio de VP, con la cámara en manos de moradores de la Comuna 8 nos dimos a la tarea de responder a la pregunta ¿qué significa innovación desde la comuna 8? Las respuestas audiovisuales
develan que a la narrativa de transformación e innovación oficial le hace falta algunos fragmentos.

Women in Zambia experience profound gender discrimination and disadvantage which constrains their development. This research provides a case study of Asikana Network, a women's group formed to tackle gender inequality in Zambia's male-dominated technology sector. It analyses their use of information and communication technologies for pursuing development goals (ICT4D) especially their use of 'participatory video'.

Some Southern scholars, including Paulo Freire and Amartya Sen have argued that in order for disadvantaged people to better self-determine their own development they need first to enhance their 'critical-agency'. This involves both their critical analysis of the root causes of the disadvantage that they experience, as well as their agency to act on those structures to transform their situation. This research analyses the concept of critical-agency and the use of participatory video to enhance it, drawing on the capability approach and critical feminist pedagogy. A participatory action research approach and a mixture of qualitative methods are employed, analysing data from films, interviews and focus groups.

Empirically the research addresses three gaps in the existing literature; it provides a case study of Zambian women's use of participatory video to enhance critical-agency; it identifies specific affordances of participatory video that enhance critical-agency, and it contributes methodological recommendations for critical participatory video practice. The research also makes conceptual contributions: in developing and defining the concept of critical-agency and its constituent elements; and by making some tentative recommendations towards a critical theory-practice of ICT4D characterised by an emancipatory practice and by a transformist intent.

This research paper discusses the potential of service-learning in enabling students to see the ground reality and engage with communities. It helps students to use their knowledge base to understand social issues and explore the individual and collective actions they can take in future to solve community problems through participatory and community based approach. It studies the process of case studies. An exchange of ideas takes place when the communities and the students interact with each other; hence the researcher has chosen 'Qualitative Method' of data collection and case study method. Qualitative was the appropriate approach because it uses the 'Inductive' method wherein the explanations emerge from the data collected. The dominant themes and categories have been formed and analysed throughout the research period. Practical learning of the participant has been studied. The practice is termed as service-based learning only when the academic expertise of students is utilised in service. The paper tries to understand how the academic expertise of the students can be used for the benefit of the community. The paper also includes the reflections of students and teachers and the perspective of the organizations on the effectiveness of compulsory and voluntary service-learning.

Keywords: Participatory, Service, Learning, Reflection, Communities, Practical Learning and Voluntary.

The purpose of this study is to examine critically the phenomenon of participatory video and to situate within this the participatory video project that was initiated as part of this study in the informal settlement area of Kayamandi, South Africa. The overall objective of the dissertation is to consider the potential of participatory video within current-day South Africa towards enabling marginalised groups to represent themselves and achieve social change.

As will be shown, the term ‘participatory video’ has been used broadly and applied to many different types of video products and processes. For the preliminary purposes of this dissertation, participatory video is defined as any video (or film) process dedicated to achieving change through which the subject(s) has been an integral part of the planning and/or production, as well as a primary end-user or target audience. The two key elements that distinguish participatory video are thus (1) understanding video (or film) as a tool for social change; and (2) understanding participation by the subject as integral to the video process.

An historical analysis thus considers various filmmaking developments that fed into the emergence of participatory video. These include various film practices that used film as a tool for change -- from soviet agitprop through to the documentary movement of the 1930s, as well as various types of filmmaking in the 1960s that opened up questions of participation. The Fogo process, developed in the late 1960s, marked the start of participatory video and video advocacy and provided guiding principles for the Kayamandi project initiated as part of this dissertation. Practitioners of the Fogo process helped initiate participatory video practice in South Africa when they brought the process to South African anti-apartheid activists in the early 1970s. The Kayamandi Participatory Video Project draws on this background and context in its planned methodology and its implementation. Out of this, various theoretical issues arising from participatory video practice contextualise a reflection and an analysis of the Kayamandi project. Lastly, this study draws conclusions and recommendations on participatory video practice in South Africa.

Guided by an overarching participatory action research framework, this research explored physical activity within the sociocultural context of northern Aboriginal communities. I worked in partnership with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation Community Wellness Program in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to develop, implement and evaluate the research. Together, we aimed to: 1) document the community’s perspective of and experience with physical activity through the eyes of the youth; 2) investigate how physical activity is embedded in local and traditional culture; 3) raise consciousness about physical activity in the community; and 4) develop a strategic plan for sustaining new and existing physical activity initiatives. Ultimately, this research highlighted the critical role of culture and traditions in the Dene people’s physical activity experience and more broadly, their health and wellbeing. Moreover, it demonstrated that a participatory action research project is entirely feasible within the capacity of a Master’s thesis, given the appropriate circumstances, partnership, and researcher attitude. This study contributes to the current understanding of physical activity from an Indigenous perspective and provides recommendations for future research, policy, and practice to develop meaningful and effective interventions for chronic disease preventions.

This is a practical guidebook for community groups and extension workers to use.

The guidebook outlines a method for creating grant proposals on video, as opposed to using written documents. It hopes to assist community groups in accessing funding via the production of collaborative and community-produced video proposals.

A video proposal is an alternative to a written proposal. Instead of (or in addition to) writing, a group can create a video that verbally and visually conveys their organisational capacities, problems, ideas and project plans.

My literature review from 2016. Updates are coming soon as this essay will become Chapter One of my thesis. Due for submission in 2019

This literature review started with the hypothesis that there is a thick line dividing researchers on the Papua-Indonesia conflict. One side is the Indonesian researchers with their loyalty to Indonesia's dogma of unity who would fanatically defend Indonesia's claim of Papua. On the other side of the line is the Western or Eurocentric researchers and Papuan people abroad who insists that Papua should be independent from Indonesia. Through reading of the available literature on Papua, the researcher found that the division is not as black and white initially thought. Though the hypothesis was good to start with, the Papua-Indonesia conflict is much more complex than what the researcher hypothesised at the start of the literature search. In this literature review, the researcher endeavours to explore the complexity of the Papua-Indonesia conflict starting with the three different versions of history, followed by the role of the Melanesian nations, and the actors in Papua-Indonesia conflict. The review will conclude in a number of recommendations for conflict resolution and an idea that link to the researcher's main area: using participatory video to include the opinions, wishes and feelings of indigenous women of Papua in the decision-making process. 2 In this review, the researcher is using her journalism method of searching for information sources. While aware of the conventional academic way of literature search using the university database and library catalogue, this preliminary research is based on reading material gathered from researcher's last trip to Papua and Indonesia, general search engines, as well as discussions and interviews with sources within the Papuan community, human right activists and Indonesian students in the UK. The researcher is aware that a more systematic and thorough literature search will need to be conducted in the near future to comply with academic standards for postgraduate research, however the researcher feels that journalism as a method would need to be included here as it is part of her own 'native' background.

So What’s Changed? Participatory action research through which diverse members co-evaluate their community organisation to creatively document their experiences and outcomes.

So many people do not tell their own stories, paint their own pictures, dance or sing to their own tunes, that it is hard, but not impossible I hope, to separate the authentic from the empty rhetoric. Authenticity of both process and experience was something actively sought within this research drawing as it did on a critical community psychology approach. In what I hoped would be a participatory action research process, an evaluation of a community organisation, led by people with lived experience of mental distress (myself included) was undertaken. Research questions focused on: the outcomes that mattered most to diverse member’s; and the fit of the participatory process with members of the newly formed So What’s Changed? Evaluation Team (SWC?ET). Whilst Participatory Video Production was the initial choice, collectively becoming stuck led to the co-development of a Body-mapping Evaluation Tool (B-mET). This supported co-researchers in documenting their past, present and hoped for future in relation to both them-selves and the organisation. A transactional analysis developmental theory Cycles of Power (Levin-Landheer, 1982) was used as a framework to map the PAR cycles that took place within this evaluation process. In addition, multi-modal thematic data analysis led to the creation of collective communication collages that privilege the visual and the voices of the co-researchers. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was tentatively suggested as a framework for the outcomes that mattered most to members. What the participatory process offered was a shared, safe space in which to explore the ways in which members wanted to represent their experience. PVP initially proved useful and fitted as a tool to use within the group process. However, it did not fit when used individually. The body-mapping fitted with most though not all members. The knowledge gained, despite the challenges, supported members in the development of inter-personal relationships, awareness of self and others, knowledge and use of power and the subsequent activist and advocacy actions taken by SWC?ET members and for some within the wider community. Further research is planned to explore the use of creative methods, including digitisation of the B-mET tool, in evaluative work as a critical community psychologist in both an academic and an activist role.

Roque de Pinho, J. and Galvin, K. 2015. “Maasai Voices on Climate Change (and other changes too)”: Participatory video and communication about environmental changes in the East African rangelands. In: Metodologias participativas: Os media e a educação. Brites, M. J., Jorge, A. and Correia Santos, S., eds. Pp. 235-248: LabCom Books.
  http://www.livroslabcom.ubi.pt/book/139

This paper draws on the experience of conducting participatory video in the Rift Valley of Kenya after the 2007–2008 post-election crisis, when the country underwent a period of intense ethnic violence. By linking development communication to conflict transformation theory, this article offers a framework that highlights the impact that communication for social change can have in post-conflict settings through the use of participatory media. It shows how this type of media productions can contribute to re-establishing relationships and creating a shared understanding of the conflict, while building the view of an interconnected future among opposing groups. In this case study, I illustrate how a collection of participatory videos became a peacebuilding tool for the youth in the Rift Valley. Through the information gathered from the interviews with young victims and perpetrators of the Kenya Post-election Violence, I discuss how both the filming and the screening of these films have opened a dialogue between different groups and contributed to processes of social change.

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Il termine 'Video Partecipativo' si riferisce ad un insieme di usi innovativi della tecnologia video che godono di crescente popolarità in molte parti del mondo. Dopo le prime esperienze condotte alla fine degli anni 60 il video partecipativo si è sviluppato in diverse direzioni e non c'è ancora consenso sull’effettivo significato del termine.
Non c'è una definizione generalmente accettata, ma ci sono diverse «affermazioni» del termine. Quasi tutta la letteratura del settore che descrive un progetto di video partecipativo offre una sorta di definizione e una sua origine. In questo caso, come riferimento principale si chiama in causa la pedagogia di Freire (1970). Freire è stato uno dei primi a sottolineare l'importanza della partecipazione. I suoi scritti hanno certamente avuto un notevole impatto, dopo la pubblicazione di 'Pedagogia degli Oppressi', su un numero impressionante di pubblicazioni in materia di partecipazione e comunicazione partecipativa, tutti fornendo una varietà di definizioni e categorizzazioni in materia di partecipazione.
Vi sono pochi testi che si occupano esclusivamente di video partecipativo1, spesso usato per spiegare e giustificare alcune procedure all'interno di un progetto di PV.
Nel progetto Vista il video partecipativo è visto come uno strumento per un cambiamento sociale positivo, uno strumento efficace per coinvolgere e mobilitare le persone emarginate e aiutarle ad attuare le proprie forme di sviluppo sostenibile. Si tratta di un processo che ha incoraggiato gli individui e le comunità a prendere il controllo dei propri destini.
Abbiamo lavorato con diversi gruppi emarginati, svantaggiati o comunque vulnerabili in sei paesi europei:
Regno Unito – donne rifugiate
Spagna - disoccupati da lungo tempo
Grecia - persone con disabilità fisiche e mentali
Germania – donne migranti turche
Lituania – un gruppo della comunità Rom
Italia – un gruppo di persone anziane che vivono in un quartiere di un centro storico
Attraverso un processo collettivo di auto-comprensione e narrazione, il PV è diventato un mezzo efficace per documentare le esperienze delle persone, i bisogni e le speranze dal proprio punto di vista. Si è avviato un processo di analisi e di cambiamento che ha celebrato la conoscenza e la pratica ed allo stesso tempo ha stimolato la creatività sia all'interno che all'esterno della comunità.
Nel progetto VISTA il PV ha dato voce e volto a coloro che normalmente non sono né sentito e né visti.

To achieve the transformational shift towards social accountability highlighted by UN post-2015 deliberations, more equitable and responsive relationships are necessary between marginalised communities and leaders. Of particular relevance to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) era is the need to build both local collective dynamics and longer-term exchange between excluded groups and state agencies as the foundation for accountable governance.
Over the last decade there has been a rapid expansion in the use of participatory video to unearth neglected perspectives, and transform communication dynamics within communities and across social levels, but it is only recently that claims of real-world influence have been interrogated critically. In this paper, I propose that framing participatory video predominately as the means for participatory representation makes the curtailment of transformative social possibilities more likely. Therefore, I re-ground participatory video as a longer-term relational process (the means) toward community emergence (the consequence), in reference to key social psychological components. I draw on the use of participatory video by acutely marginalised communities in Kenya and Palestine to research the local enablers and barriers of change. Through exploring the possibilities and constraints in context I reflect on what such processes can contribute to community-driven development and how the key tensions can be negotiated. Looking ahead to SDGs this raises key questions about the challenges faced in building longer-term accountability between the poorest and most marginalised groups and influential decision makers who can support them.

"By bringing together literatures of Communication for Development and Conflict Transformation, this paper provides a theoretical illustration of the impact of participatory video as a tool for overcoming hostility among groups, as well as for healing and re-connecting communities that have endured loss and suffering as a consequence of civil war and inter-communal violence. This is accompanied by a number of practical experiences of projects implemented by organizations on the ground.
This type of scenario, often characterized by a lack of dialogue among groups, has been recognized to be fertile ground for the setting up of community media, where people are given the means for self-expression. In particular, video productions created through participatory methodology can be effective tools for dealing with the hostility and grief that linger after a civil war, as they provide those channels of communication that are needed for effective development interventions aimed at community healing."

¿Cuál es el rol de la universidad y de los colectivos sociales en la producción de conocimiento para la transformación social hacia la ciudadanía global y el desarrollo sostenible? Ante tal pregunta es necesario repensar las metodologías y los espacios destinados a la producción de conocimiento.En este sentido, desde la UPV surge el proyecto Toma Social: creando vídeos para el cambio, que desde la investigación colectiva pretende coproducir narrativas audiovisuales transformadoras.

What is the role of the University and the social groups in the production of knowledge for social transformation towards global citizenship and sustainable development? To face with such a question, it is necessary to rethink the methodologies and the spaces devoted to the production of knowledge.In this sense, from the UPV comes the project Toma Social: creating videos for change, a collective research aiming to co-produce transformative audiovisual narratives.

Creado con mis compañeras de la cooperativa Pandora Mirabilia, "En Plano Corto" es una guía metodológica para el uso del audiovisual en la Educación para el Desarrollo con jóvenes. Una propuesta con la que apoyar a los y las educadoras que apuesten por introducir el audiovisual en su labor educativa. La guía se compone de un manual, un dvd con 14 vídeos sociales y las fichas didácticas que acompañan a cada uno de estos vídeos.
ISBN: 978-84-95039-18-7

The application of Communication for Development (C4D) in conflict prevention, conflict reduction and post-conflict reconstruction interventions is a relatively new field. International organisations that have begun to adopt new communication & media designs in their peace work are progressively offering a credible baseline to engage in the assessment of this practice. In this paper, I offer a short compendium of the evaluation frameworks I have developed through my empirical research on the impact of Communication for Development in Peacebuilding; this is presented alongside a number of reflections and followed by concluding considerations on the state of the field.

The use of Participatory Video (PV) in development projects with marginalised communities by Non-government organisations is increasing. Though PV practice has expanded, there has been limited academic discussion and debate on the subject. PV is often assumed to be a non-problematic process that enables less powerful groups to gain power and participate in social change processes. This research contributes to the emerging academic debates by critically investigating how participating in a long-term PV project can provide participants the opportunity to gain agency and to engage with local social change in a sustained manner. It studies projects by two NGOs in Hyderabad and Mumbai, which work with young women participants, using gender as a lens to examine the role of power relations within the projects.  This thesis draws on three key concepts: (i) participation, (ii) agency and (iii) gender norms. Using the conceptualisation of agency in the Capability Approach, it focuses on the various aspects of a long-term PV project that can either promote or restrict young women’s agency. The methods of collecting data were interviews, group discussions, participatory observation and participatory video-making with the research participants. The analysis of the data was carried out using a framework which maps the relationships between the various phases of a long-term PV project and the participants’ agency. Based on the findings of the analysis, this thesis argues that oppressive gender power relations within their household and the community, and hierarchy within a supposedly participatory project are critical influences on young women’s ability to become agents of change. In particular, the thesis draws attention to: (i) participants’ need to continuously negotiate power with the household and community members, (ii) inherent hierarchy and the nature of participation in a long-
term PV project, (iii) the relation between participants’ need to access resources and hierarchy within a project, and (iv) the difference in needs, goals and impacts identified by donors/NGOs and the participants. The thesis proposes a conceptual model of participatory video as an agency-development process, which shows how these factors are crucial in developing and sustaining participants’ agency.      This thesis builds new knowledge by providing an in-depth understanding of power relations in long-term PV projects and what impacts agency - areas which are often overlooked in the literature on PV.

Abstract

The information and communication technology (ICT) of participatory video has become an increasingly popular development activity over the last 45 years. This is due, in part, to its claimed efficacy in generating valued development outcomes at the level of the individual, group and society. Participatory video is a set of techniques to involve a group or community in shaping and creating their own film (Lunch & Lunch 2006). Unlike other kinds of film-making participatory video, it involves handsing-over control of the film-production process to inexpert users to enable them to express and represent themselves, communicating to others about issues affecting their lives. It is claimed that among other benefits, this process can enhance participants' self-confidence and self-esteem, individual and collective agency, and serve as an effective mechanism to amplify the voices of marginalised groups to influence the decision-making processes affecting their lives. In recent years writing about participatory video has generally become less celebratory and more critical, questioning among other things, the extent to which control is handed over and scrutinising claims that participatory video generates transformational social change.

In an era of increasing access to digital technologies, Indigenous communities are progressively
more able to present sophisticated and differentiated narratives in order to maximise their longterm
survival. In this article, we explore how Indigenous communities use participatory video and
participatory photography as tools of Indigenous media to enhance, adapt and/or reinforce their
collective social memory. This social memory is key for identity formation and self-representation,
and the ways in which Indigenous representations are performed promote particular interests
and worldviews to the local, national and global scales. Working with the Makushi and Wapishana
communities of the North Rupununi, Guyana, the current social memory ‘in use’ was surfaced
through the participatory video and photography process led by the Indigenous community.
Through an iterative process of analysing images (photos and video clips) and text (written
material, narration and spoken word), we identified key narratives of the communities’ social
memory. We show how communities provide different messages to different actors through the
way they use participatory video and participatory photography, revealing how self-conscious
multiple identities shape differing purposes. We suggest that our ability, as non-Indigenous
stakeholders, to perceive, appreciate and act upon these more complex and nuanced narratives is
critical to help address environmental governance in a rapidly changing social–ecological context.

Influential reviews of the field suggest that ICT4D is characterised by uncritical assumptions about the causal relationship of ICT to development, and by an under-theorisation of 'development'. High failure rates in ICT4D initiatives have been attributed to a 'top-down', technologically deterministic process in which 'intended beneficiaries' are not sufficiently involved in determining either the ends or means of ICT for Development.

Drawing on a theoretical framework combining Jürgen Habermas' critical theory, the radical feminism of Maxine Molyneux and Ineke Buskens, and the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, this paper outlines a normative and conceptual means to differentiate between the various types of ICT4D initiative, and proposes some elements of a critical theory and practice of ICT4D.

This paper elaborates a typology of nine different types of ICT4D illustrated by a matrix of three types of development intent (conformist, reformist and transformist) and by three types of practical human interests ('technical-control', 'communicative-understanding' and 'emancipatory responses to domination').he paper argues that an initiative is an example of 'Critical ICT4D' to the extent that it combines the transformist intent of tackling the structural root-causes of under-development, with the emancipatory interest of making the 'intended beneficiaries' the authors and subjects of ICT4D initiatives.

This paper develops a geographical understanding of ethics by drawing from the author’s experiences during a participatory video (PV) project in Barbados. This project framed and informed a partial understanding of the ethical geographies of Caribbean sugar at large (Richardson-Ngwenya, 2009). Taking inspiration from interactions with sugar workers in Barbados, I engage here with ethics at the level of the inter-personal. Dealing with a key question that emerges from a geographical or embedded approach to ethics (Meskell and Pels, 2005), the paper addresses how we can understand ethics through inter-personal interactions.

I conclude by reflecting on the apparent problem of translating the singularity of encounters into more general ethical statements (cf. Barnett, 2005). Instead of treating this as a problem, I argue that inter-personal ethics of encounter are not, in
actuality, singular events but are inter-connected and mediated events within a network of wider interactions, both transpersonal and transnational. I explore how, in this case of participatory video, ethical relations are affective, not only in the proximate spaces of group interaction but also across great spatio-temporal
distances.

Esta  investigación contextualiza cómo un colectivo de jóvenes ubicado en la periferia sur de la Ciudad de Puebla, experimenta su proceso de juventud, expresa y configura su identidad. Utilizando el video participativo y la observación participante, se realizó un taller de video participativo en el segundo semestre del 2015. En este taller se visualizaron símbolos identitarios apropiados o discrepados por los jóvenes para definirse y nombrar su posición en el contexto que habitan, el cual está siendo modificado por la dinámica global. Al mismo tiempo, el taller buscó fomentar el empoderamiento juvenil para incidir en la creación de estrategias que puedan fomentar la visualización y posibles alternativas a problemáticas albergadas en su comunidad.

Palabras clave: Jóvenes, identidad, configuración identitaria, empoderamiento juvenil, video participativo.

This paper shares insights into formulating a Doctorate of Creative Arts study within an emergent Indigenous communication paradigm. I assert that long-term consultation processes are a necessary precursor to accurately framing context for communication of Indigenous knowledge within an academic construct. By embedding sustainable communication practices within the consultation process I believe we manifest a more meaningful conceptualisation of research meaning. This resonates with our youth and a new generation of activism and scholarship. It speaks to the importance of seeking to harmonise knowledge pathways with localised lores, protocols and big-picture principles for research media.

‘Participatory’ research is often presented as a means to ‘empower’ stigmatised groups by addressing shame and by promoting attitude changes. Drawing on experiences producing a ‘participatory’ docudrama with traditional Qur’anic students (almajirai) in Kano, northern Nigeria, I reflect on the limits of ‘participatory’ research as a tool for ‘empowerment’. I describe the risks stigmatised groups may incur by participating, and consider to what extent, if at all, it can foster social change. The almajirai have attracted negative attention as presumed victims of child neglect and as ‘cannon fodder’ for Islamic radicalisation. Their participation in the filmmaking gave them an opportunity to voice their concerns and to rebuke those treating them heedlessly. At the same time, they became vulnerable to accusations and suspicions within their communities. To escape the negative connotations of poverty, they deemphasised its role for almajiri enrolment, thus concealing structural inequalities.

Video ethnography is one way that researchers might investigate how adults, children and young people interact with their environment and with each other. Video produced by research participants, or 'video ethnography', can provide fascinating insights into these interactions, providing novel and exciting ways for geographers to better understand lived experiences which might otherwise be difficult to access. After summarising how video has typically been employed by geographers, we focus on videos produced by children, and how these provide insights into how children playfully produce and perform their own multimedia identities, the cultural influences that shape that production, and children's own analysis of outdoor spaces. This chapter will introduce you to how participant-led filming can be used in research, using the example of children in outdoor environments as a guide. The chapter provides: • A critical introduction to video and video ethnography in geographical research; • An exploration of the methodology employed in our research; • Examples of children's video ethnography in outdoor settings, and our analysis of it; • An activity to familiarise students with the application of video ethnography.