Co-producing knowledge about the impacts of emergencies/pandemics: Developing remote participatory visual methods using smartphones

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.