Co-producing knowledge about the impacts of emergencies/pandemics: Developing remote participatory visual methods using smartphones
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Methodology
Abstract
The goal of this project is to respond to the challenges of methodological co-production and participatory action research - which are almost always conducted in person face-to-face - that arise during emergencies by developing an innovative remote participatory visual method using smartphones. In collaboration with migrant women in Colombia and a London-based film company, we will co-develop and test a novel and pioneering remote participatory visual method for co-production researchers by applying participatory filming remotely to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's new lived realities of urban life. The whole research process, from development to dissemination, will be conducted online.
During emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face research becomes impossible through travel and social contact restrictions. Many researchers have been stalled immediately prior to, or during, data collection, but the need to work with research participants remains. The same can occur in contexts of climate emergencies, disasters, conflict affected areas or in situations where there is not enough funding available for international travel. This is particularly challenging in transnational research and where collaborative research methodologies conducted with marginalised communities in times of such crisis become even more pressing. A remote participatory visual methodology provides a solution to continue or initiate participatory work, whilst ensuring that co-production and impact research still holds the potential to create social change and transformation of past, current and evolving issues.
One of the most promising solutions to be able to co-produce knowledge without face-to-face in-person contact is the use of smartphones to collect and share audio, visual and written data. The increased use of smartphones worldwide provides an opportunity for researchers to connect to participants transnationally remotely and for participants to still being able to express their voice. A remote participatory visual methodology may thus offer deep insights during emergencies, co-produced with participants to include those whose voices are traditionally unheard, while working towards the equalisation of power-relationships during the research process.
To successfully develop a pioneering remote participatory visual method in this project, an interdisciplinary research team in the UK and Colombia consisting of Geography, Sociology, International Development, Filmmaking and Education and Human Rights scholars and a London-based film company will explore and test the methodological, ethical and technical challenges and possibilities of the use of smartphones for remote participant recruitment and participatory visual data collection. In collaboration with migrant women in Colombia, we will produce four filming and evaluation cycles, during which we will train researchers and participants in filming techniques, while at the same time collecting filmed material to produce short films of how the pandemic impacts the women's negotiation of their gendered right to the city in Medellin and Bogotá.
Methodologically, the research will develop, pilot and evaluate a novel remote participatory visual method that can shift the co-production research landscape and make this form of research more accessible in contexts that have been excluded because of lack of face-to-face access to participants. The project will produce training materials for social science researchers. Substantively, the research project will contribute co-produced knowledge about women's gendered right to the city, including the voices of vulnerable women who are frequently absent from contemporaneous commentaries of emergencies and disasters, especially in situations where face-to-face contact is impossible or undesirable.
During emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face research becomes impossible through travel and social contact restrictions. Many researchers have been stalled immediately prior to, or during, data collection, but the need to work with research participants remains. The same can occur in contexts of climate emergencies, disasters, conflict affected areas or in situations where there is not enough funding available for international travel. This is particularly challenging in transnational research and where collaborative research methodologies conducted with marginalised communities in times of such crisis become even more pressing. A remote participatory visual methodology provides a solution to continue or initiate participatory work, whilst ensuring that co-production and impact research still holds the potential to create social change and transformation of past, current and evolving issues.
One of the most promising solutions to be able to co-produce knowledge without face-to-face in-person contact is the use of smartphones to collect and share audio, visual and written data. The increased use of smartphones worldwide provides an opportunity for researchers to connect to participants transnationally remotely and for participants to still being able to express their voice. A remote participatory visual methodology may thus offer deep insights during emergencies, co-produced with participants to include those whose voices are traditionally unheard, while working towards the equalisation of power-relationships during the research process.
To successfully develop a pioneering remote participatory visual method in this project, an interdisciplinary research team in the UK and Colombia consisting of Geography, Sociology, International Development, Filmmaking and Education and Human Rights scholars and a London-based film company will explore and test the methodological, ethical and technical challenges and possibilities of the use of smartphones for remote participant recruitment and participatory visual data collection. In collaboration with migrant women in Colombia, we will produce four filming and evaluation cycles, during which we will train researchers and participants in filming techniques, while at the same time collecting filmed material to produce short films of how the pandemic impacts the women's negotiation of their gendered right to the city in Medellin and Bogotá.
Methodologically, the research will develop, pilot and evaluate a novel remote participatory visual method that can shift the co-production research landscape and make this form of research more accessible in contexts that have been excluded because of lack of face-to-face access to participants. The project will produce training materials for social science researchers. Substantively, the research project will contribute co-produced knowledge about women's gendered right to the city, including the voices of vulnerable women who are frequently absent from contemporaneous commentaries of emergencies and disasters, especially in situations where face-to-face contact is impossible or undesirable.
Publications
Marzi S
(2022)
Co-producing impact-in-process with participatory audio-visual research
in Area
| Title | Mujeres en pie de lucha del campo a la ciudad |
| Description | This is the first of three short films resulting from the ESRC funded project. This short film has been created in a complete remote research process during which women in Colombia used their smartphones to film videos, which then have been edited from a distance by researchers and filmmakers of the project. Filming took place in Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia. The film discusses briefly women's displacement and their settling in the city. It provides initial context on how women appropriate(d) urban space when moving from the country side to the city including ways they developed to generate income. The women show us in this film, the challenges they face in the city, their forms of resistance, their ways to continue after being displaced, and their networks of support and strategies to enhance their lives in the city. Yet, the inequalities and difficulties women experience persist and they still face different forms of violence, demonstrated with a special focus on the Paro Nacional demonstrations that took place in April/May 2021. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | This has been the first film created by using the remote participatory video methodology in this project. While the project is still in progress, in this early stage the most substantial impact has been in the learning of technical and filming skills for women. Here, women learnt how to use their smartphones to produce short films, how to send them online with different applications and they obtained a basic understanding of the production of visual material for wider audiences. Additionally, they took part in weekly Zoom meetings during which we discussed the filming material and content. The majority of the women did not participate in online meetings before the start of the project, nor did they know how to use their smartphones for participation in Zoom meetings. The film has been shared publicly through a Vimeo platform and social media. It will be further available on the project webpage, hosted by the LSE. Additionally, we plan to present this film and in the future a final documentary produced with the same methodology, during several local screenings in Colombia as well as during online events. |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/643333745 |
| Title | Volviendo a Vivir (Back to Life) |
| Description | We developed a new methodology in the ESRC funded project of remote participatory filming using participants smartphones. The result is a 23 minutes long documentary called 'Volviendo a Vivir (Back to Life)'. This documentary was co-produced with 24 women in Bogotá and Medellín remotely using their smartphones. Over a period of 10 months women would join weekly online meetings with their smartphones during which we discussed the research topics, trained women using their smartphones for filming activities, discussed filmed material and generated editing guidelines for the final film. The result is a documentary on women's displacement experience, the violence and inequality they live in in their respective cities today and their aspirations for a better future. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The co-production of the film created impact in form of skills and capacity building for women participants. They learnt how to use their smartphones for online meetings and filming and became proficient in using them. The project also produced what we call impact-in-process (Marzi and Pain, 2022), which is a form of impact through the process of doing the project. Here impact was created in form of awareness building and confidence through reciprocal learning between the women and researchers. Additionally women who participated created social networks of support within their cities and cross cities between Bogota and Medellin. The film itself has already been screened in Colombia, the UK and online several times and reached academic, civil society and general public audiences. |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/717170911 |
| Description | The goal of this project was to respond to the challenges of methodological co-production and participatory action research - which are almost always conducted face-to-face - that arise during emergencies by developing an innovative remote participatory visual method using smartphones. In collaboration with displaced women in Colombia and a London-based film company, we co-developed and tested a novel and pioneering remote participatory filming method and co-produced knowledge on women's displacement experiences and how they settled in their respective cities in Bogotá and Medellín. As a result of this co-production research project we co-produced a documentary called 'Volviendo a Vivir' (publicly available here https://vimeo.com/716682817) . This 23-minute-long documentary shows women's testimonies on their displacement and the challenges they encountered in their contemporary homes in Bogotá and Medellín. To co-produce the documentary, we piloted our pioneering method of participatory filming remotely. Over 10 months we connected in weekly zoom workshops. Women used their smartphones to connect to Zoom, to film documentary material in the form of short 2-3- minutes videos according to pre-defined themes, and to send the videos via a transfer app to the PI. The whole process was online, apart from one fieldwork stay where the PI went to Colombia for face-to-face workshops in January and February 2022, one in each city, Bogotá and Medellín. |
| Exploitation Route | As a result of the challenges that resulted of doing this remote project, we developed a hybrid approach rather than a completely remote one. Though we would have been able to finish the project remotely only as well, we felt the face-to-face workshops that took place in 2022 were helpful to finalise the documentary and co-produce knowledge on women's displacement and challenges of settling in the city. The hybrid and the purely remote approach we developed in the project is promising to be used in the future by different users in different sectors. It allows to combine online only or in combination with in person activities. We are currently developing this further and will report on it in the future. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Other |
| URL | https://vimeo.com/716682817 |
| Description | We have been able to create a documentary directed by the participant women, providing them with a medium to amplify their voices about the challenges they experience(d) because of their displacement and settling in the city. Women have taken ownership of the documentary and organised viewings of it independently of the research team, for example on the 5th of August 2022 they organised a film screening at the museum Casa de Memoria in Medellín and on the weekend of the 15th of October at the community cinema festival in Ciudad Bolivar in Bogota, festival de cine Sanchocho. In both events women have shown the film and organised a Q&A during which they reflected on the process of making the film, the impact that it created for them, such as in terms of technical skills building but also awareness and capacity building as well as to answer questions for the audience. Women understand the film as being representative for the majority of displaced women's experiences. The audience consisted of community members, the public and NGO employees in both events. The majority of impact created last year so far is therefore what we call 'impact-in-process'. Impact that is non-metrical and focused on mutual learning, reciprocal learning and capacity building as well as co-disseminating the findings of the project to build confidence for the participants and those women affected by displacement in the country. Women learnt important skills and do use them in their private and professional lives, especially the film making skills, which they refer to regularly in events. The methodology will be useful in the future and we will continue to work on publications that will make it accessible to other participants, communities , academics, NGOs and practitioners. We have listed many dissemination events that go beyond academic audiences. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Conference paper on displaced women's activism towards desired urban futures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Displaced women's activism towards desired urban futures in times of crisis in Colombia, The International Geographic Union and The Paris 2022 UGI Centennial Congress, Paris, FR, Co-presented by Dr Sonja Marzi and Prof. Rachel Pain |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference paper on ethical reflections in relation to remote participatory filming process |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Ethical Reflections on Issues of Participation and Collaboration When Doing Participatory Audio-Visual Research Remotely, 18th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, online, Co-presented by Dr Sonja Marzi and Dr Jen Tarr |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference paper on hybrid participatory methodologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Remote - in person - or both? Reimagining the future of creative, participatory and arts-based methodologies with displaced women in Colombia, Royal Geographical Society's Annual International Conference, Newcastle, UK, presented by Dr Sonja Marzi |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference paper on remote participatory filming methodology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Co-producing a film during the pandemic with displaced women in Medellin and Bogotá: participatory and audio-visual research from a distance using smartphones, Society for Latin American Studies Annual Conference, Bath, UK, Co-presented with Maria Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference paper on women's activism among layered disasters |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Disasters solidarities: displaced women's activism among layered disasters in Colombia, Association of American Geographers conference, critical geographies of disasters and relief session, Online, Co-presented by Prof. Rachel Pain and Dr Sonja Marzi |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Online screening premier 'Volviendo a Vivir' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • 22nd June 2022: Online film screening and dissemination event hosted by the LSE Latin American and Caribbean Centre We screened the documentary online in a Zoom event followed by a Q&A with all research team members and the majority of participant women. The audience was a mix of academics, civil society, media and students mostly. However the event was open to general public as well and advertised over eventbride. After the event I received many emails from people asking for more information on the methodology, the film to include in their own teaching, and if we can write more about on their blogs as well if we would be interested to work with the Latin American Bureau in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation of documentary in Museum Casa de Memoria in Medellin, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The women participants of the project created a documentary about their displacement experiences and how they settled in their respective cities of Medellin and Bogota in Colombia using our newly developed remote participatory filming methodology, which we developed in this project with them. On the 5th of August 2022 the group of women from the city in Medellin organised independently by themselves a public screening of the documentary in the Museum casa de memoria, which is the key museum related to the Colombian conflict in the country. The screening was followed by a Q&A session in which I, Dr Sonja Marzi as PI participated in person, and a short theatre piece that the women presented to remember those women and victims of the conflict that are not with us anymore. The whole event was live streamed on Facebook live and is still available on the Facebook page of the casa de memoria. The event was attendee by more than 50 people, who are invited community members of the women, visitors of the museum and invited people the women know through their work as community leaders in the city. Through the live stream we believe we reached however over a 100 people as audience as the women in Bogota advertised the event in their networks as well. The main impact beyond these metrics of this event is the fact that women took ownership of their co-produced documentary. This is the best outcome of which a participatory researcher usually only can dream. The event was completely planned and conducted solely by the women participants. During the Q&A impact in terms of awareness building and reciprocal learning have become clearly visible. The Q&A sparked questions about the methodology and how women created this documentary mainly through working remotely together, though we had face-to-face workshops in January/February 2022. They also reflected a lot on the topics of the documentary and how they learnt from other women in the project. I have published on these forms of impact, which Rachel Pain and I call impact-in-process. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1094894874774059 |
| Description | Project website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The project website is hosted by the Latin America and Caribbean Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/remote-methods). The project website provides information on the project, its objectives and aims, the project team, the women participants and provides project outcomes in form of videos that have been produced in the last two years. The website is in English and Spanish to reach a wider international audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/remote-methods |
| Description | Research workshop with invited academics to present the methodology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Research workshop with invited academics to present the remote participatory filming methodology and following hybrid research methodology resulting out of the project. This has been a hybrid event to include Maria Fernanda Carrillo Sánchez, Colombian filmmaker and researcher. We invited selected academics who also work with participatory methodologies to present our research project and get into a fruitful discussion of the challenges and opportunities we encountered. The event was a research exchange with other academic as well presenting their work and discuss how different approaches complement each other. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Screening of documentary 'Volviendo a Vivir' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On the 15th October 2022 the documentary that was filmed in this research project was screened at the community cinema festival Ojo al sancocho, Ciudad Bolivar, Bogotá, Colombia. The women participants in Bogotá presented the film and some of them were participating in a Q&A after the film screening. The community cinema festival takes place every year in Ciudad Bolivar and is a magnet for the community to watch the latest film done by there community members. The women organised the screening themselves with support of the Colombia research assistant based in Bogota. Numbers of visitors is difficult to estimate but we believe it was between 20-30 people who attended the screening. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.ojoalsancocho.org |
| Description | Screening of documentary 'Volviendo a Vivir' at RGS conference 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The documentary 'Volviendo a Vivir' was screened at the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference in 2022. The audience was between 30 and 50 people and sparked a fruitful discussion on topics of displacement, violence and trauma but also on the remote and hybrid methodological approach used to co-produced the film. We even had people contacting us after the conference to ask questions about the process of making the film and if we can share it with them for teaching purposes in their own courses on participatory methodologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Screening of documentary 'Volviendo a Vivir' at community cinema festival 'Gira de austogestion HUECC' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The women participants of the project created a documentary about their displacement experiences and how they settled in their respective cities of Medellin and Bogota in Colombia using our newly developed remote participatory filming methodology, which we developed in this project with them. On the 15th of October 2022 the group of women from the city in Medellin presented the documentary in a public screening a community cinema festival in Medellin, Colombian. The screening was followed by a Q&A session in which some of the women would participate to answer questions about the film and the process of making to the audience. The event was attendee by more than 10 people, who are invited community members of the women, visitors of the festival and invited people the women know through their work as community leaders in the city. During the Q&A impact in terms of awareness building and reciprocal learning have become clearly visible. The Q&A sparked questions about the methodology and how women created this documentary mainly through working remotely together, though we had face-to-face workshops in January/February 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |