Building agency through participatory video: insights from the experiences of young women participants in India

Abstract

Participatory video (PV) is being used by several nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in many different countries. It is often assumed to be a non-problematic process that enables less powerful groups to gain power and participate in social change. While scholars have for long critiqued participatory approaches, it is only in recent years that academic and professional debates that challenge assumptions about PV have emerged. This paper adds to those debates, while focusing primarily on critiquing the PV practice. Drawing on the concepts of participation, agency, and gender, it examines how the agency of less powerful groups can be affected over a period of time as they participate in PV projects initiated by NGOs. It discusses these issues through a case study of a long-term PV project done with young women in a community in Hyderabad (India), undertaken during a doctoral research. It draws attention to the several aspects of a long-term PV project that impact agency-development. The paper argues that while PV can enable participants to gain agency, it is equally challenging to do so in the presence of power relations.

Keywords:

• Agency
• video
• power relations
• nongovernmental organizations
• participation
• capability approach

Notes

Acknowledgements

We are extremely thankful to Mahita to have allowed us to undertake this research. All the participants there took a lot of interest in this research and without their participation, this research would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes

1 The practice, which requires women from certain communities to conceal their faces. The term is also used to denote sex segregation in physical space.

2 Literal translation from Hindi – video people.

Additional information

Funding

Authors would like to acknowledge the funding provided by the Open University, which enabled this PhD.

Notes on contributors

Namita Singh

Namita Singh is a participatory media researcher and practitioner. She has worked with several international organizations on participatory media and is interested in learning about the use of ICTS for development. She is currently the Head of Training at Digital Green.

Chris High

Chris High is a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Development at Linnaeus University in Sweden. He researches learning and communication in sustainable development, and has worked on applied projects in Eastern Europe, Southern and Eastern Africa and India. He is on the International Visual Methods Steering Committee.

Andy Lane

Andy Lane is Professor of Environmental Systems at The Open University. He has authored or co-authored many teaching texts, research papers and other publications dealing with systems thinking and environmental management; the use of diagramming to aid systems thinking and learning; and systems of open education.

Sue Oreszczyn

Sue Oreszczyn is a Research Fellow at the Open University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her research interests include linking policy and practice, cooperative/participatory and systems approaches to research, and the use of visual techniques such as scenario mapping, influence mapping and cognitive mapping.