Participatory Action Research in Digital Storytelling: Using Mobile Technology to Co-Create Social Change in Kenya

Antonia Liguori, Daniel Onyango, Melaneia Warwick, Michael Wilson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the outcomes of an ongoing transnational partnership
between Hope Raisers, a youth-led NGO based in Korogocho slum in Nairobi,
Kenya, and the Storytelling Academy at Loughborough University in the United
Kingdom (UK). A group of researchers and artists explore the value of digital
storytelling as a tool for participatory action research (PAR) through an
exploration of the challenges and opportunities of applying this tool to
facilitate online and face-to-face conversations. The focus is around issues of
global interest from a local and personal perspective. A number of case studies
are discussed to demonstrate the impact of a digital storytelling mobile lab, via
PAR, on a group of stakeholders including community members, Nairobibased artists and UK-based researchers.
The case studies recount the processes of exploring hybrid forms of storytelling
(digital and performative) to co-design a public event focused on waste
management and to develop community-led solutions to the design of urban
spaces. The methodological, social and cultural challenges faced while applying PAR approaches to facilitate the digital storytelling process are
addressed. There is critical reflection on the ways in which workshop
participants and other storytellers were supported in shared, collaborative and
asynchronous projects from different, non-traditional learning locations.
Through this, it is demonstrated that, while PAR approaches promote social
justice, there are a number of ethical dilemmas to tackle and protocols to
develop. In this way the authors share different ways of applying a culturally
appropriate and practical PAR approach to address societal issues and create
social change.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCo-teaching/co-research in contexts of inequality
Subtitle of host publicationUsing networked learning to connect Africa and the world
PublisherVernon Press
Chapter12
Pages221-236
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9781648896859
ISBN (Print)9781648895784
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023
Externally publishedYes

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