Photovoice Evaluated: An Appropriate Visual Methodology for Aboriginal Water Resource Research

Methodologies in human geography are rapidly evolving to include participatory approaches that incorporate other voices and knowledges. Central to these participatory methodologies is the co‐evolution of research objectives, the co‐production of knowledge, joint learning, and capacity building of all those involved. Visual methodologies that use the media of photography are gaining recognition as powerful participatory methods. In this paper, we evaluate whether photovoice is a culturally appropriate and engaging visual methodology, and consider how it can be improved to better facilitate research between non‐Aboriginal researchers and Aboriginal Australians involved in water resource management. We draw from two photovoice projects conducted in partnership with two separate Aboriginal groups in northern Australia. Photovoice methodology in this context was found to be both culturally appropriate and engaging. It facilitated genuine participatory research, empowered participants, and was easily adapted to the field situation. The methodology proved to be a powerful tool that revealed in‐depth information including Aboriginal values, knowledge, concerns, and aspirations for water resource management that may not have been captured through other participatory approaches. Photovoice methodology could be enhanced with a more defined role for the researcher as knowledge broker and as translator and communicator of research outcomes (as deemed appropriate by research participants) to policy makers.     

Cultures of Border Control: Schengen & the Evolution of European Frontiers

This paper traces, and is the traces of, a collective project to render a neighbourhood queer. It is a project that emerges from queer social relations. Academic research and knowledge generation are approached collaboratively by working with queer-identified residents from west-central neighbourhoods in Toronto, Canada who volunteered with the Queer West ShOUT Youth Program. Within the context of two participant-facilitated discussion events, we discursively and artistically investigate queer world-making in the neighbourhood of West Queen West. Through collective mental mapping and photovoice renderings we interpret the queering of urban space as a queer utopian impulse. We critically examine the ‘concrete utopia’ of Queer West Village and question its resonance in the lives of ShOUT volunteers. Theoretically inspired by Muñoz, our ‘a/r/tographic’ mode of inquiry and critical praxis are a rendering of ‘queer futurity.’ We draw on our past to critique our lived present so as to imagine future potentialities. We do so in order to argue that it is vital that the queerness we individually and collectively strive for at the spatial scale of the neighbourhood, such as the process of place-making itself, is grounded in material experience yet remains provisional and an ideality that motivates us.     

‘A place to rest’: the role of transitional housing in ending homelessness for women in Calgary,Canada

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the role of transitional housing in ending homelessness for women and (2) to explore how gender-specific experiences of homelessness may inform housing service delivery models. Using a participatory research methodology, photovoice, and focus group discussion, nine women with lived experience of homelessness were engaged over 10 weeks in a process of reflection and critical dialogue about their previous experiences in a YWCA transitional housing facility and their current YWCA permanent housing in Calgary, Canada. Through this process women revealed that the key aspects of transitional housing that helped them exit homelessness were the interplay of four important factors: safety, time, a community of women with similar experiences, and a supportive environment with access to appropriate services in which to recover from trauma. Although moving directly from homelessness to permanent housing may be appropriate for some women, findings from this study demonstrate that this may not be the case for all. Our results suggest that once permanently housed women, especially those with histories of trauma, struggle with the trade-off between the rules that kept them safe in transitional housing and living as independent, autonomous adults in the community.     

Street child spaces: belonging,conflict and resistance in the city of Durban through the eyes of street youth

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with the everyday ‘spatial tactics’ deployed by children in a street situation in order to deal with notions of public space that define them as ‘out of place’, marginal and deviant. Using photovoice, we reconstruct former street children’s definitions of and feelings about their spaces in the city, bringing into view a complex set of social problems, attitudes and strategies that moves beyond the traditional binary notion of street children as either deviants or victims. This work points to the importance of finding ways to ensure the voices of marginalized and disadvantaged children are heard and presents the narratives that are important to our understanding of their worlds. Analyzing their spatiality in contexts of conflict, belonging and resistance, we found that children and youth in a street situation are mainly concerned with empowering themselves and resisting dominant labels and police repression.     

Digital diaries: new uses of PhotoVoice in participatory research with young people

ABSTRACT

New technology offers extremely novel and useful ways of exploring ‘the everyday’ of young people’s lives and can include videos, live feeds filmed on social media, text messages, email communication, and messaging or headset communication on gaming consoles. The significance of mobile communication in the lives of young people means that digital diaries offers alternate ways of implementing PhotoVoice methods. This viewpoint proposes the ways in which digital diaries are a useful method of collecting data in research with young people and highlights the challenges and ethical concerns that must be considered when using this method.     

A visual ethnographic pilot study of school travel for families living with childhood disability

ABSTRACT

Children’s school transport has become a major research focus over the past 20 years, particularly within the fields of planning, transport geography, and children’s geographies. However, this work has rarely considered children living with disability. This article presents the pilot component of a visual ethnographic study about school transport within families living with childhood disability. It explains why we piloted the study, details the pilot process, and presents lessons learned from piloting the study with two families of children living with different mobility needs. The lessons largely concern the design of interview guides and the interviewing process, as well as the development of an adaptive photo kit to enable children’s independent participation. The article shows how piloting qualitative studies, particularly those involving disabled children, can be invaluable in terms of improving data collection technologies and logistics, as well as enabling inclusive participation.