Prof. Krista Harper (UMass Amherst), "Participatory Visual and Digital Research: Studying and transforming Urban Environments." Keynote at the 2014 Futures of Visual Anthropology conference, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. April 4, 2014.
2. Studying urban environments:
The view from anthropology
Beliefs, power, & urban environments
“Senses of place” & place attachment
Cultural forms of wayfinding, dwelling, &
everyday practices
Methods: participant observation, interviews,
“eliciting the participants’ point of view”
5. The Participatory Turn
Critique of traditional ethnography
Post-colonial, feminist, postmodern
Awareness of power relationships
Calls for “engaged research”
Rise of Participatory Action Research (PAR)
7. Studying Environments
with Participatory Visual & Digital Methods
Participatory digital archives, museums, &
exhibitions
Participatory GIS (PGIS) & mapping
Participatory video
Digital storytelling
PhotoVoice
8. The PVDR process
Negotiating goals
Integrating participants in research process
Using appropriate technologies
Considering ethics of representation
Anticipating audiences and dissemination
17. Using Photovoice to study
urban environments
Hungary: Understandings of environmental injustice
United States: “A place for stories” after urban renewal
Portugal: Senses & affect in urban gardening
18. Hungary: Understandings of
environmental injustice
Sajószentpéter
• Pop. 14000 (2500 Roma),
no. Hungary
• Glass & coal city;
hard hit after 1989
• Roma (Gypsy)
neighborhood
• Collaboration with
SAKKF, community
organization
19. •Six young people from SAKKF, a Roma community org.
•Anthropologist & SAKKF president as facilitators
30. Photo: Sónia Gáspar
“[Here is] someone literally, with
her hands on the land…Only in
doing it will things germinate,
right? If we are not engaged
and willing to do something –
in this case to plant a garden –
nothing happens. So, we have
to put our hands on the land to
make things grow.”
Gostamos de mexer na terra
32. Concluding
thoughts
Participatory visual & digital
research offers:
New ways to elicit stories &
collect data
Engaging participants
more meaningfully
Policy impact