‘Girls have powers’: using research-led arts to connect policymaking with girls’ lived experiences in Uganda

Abstract

This article offers new methodological directions for generating difficult-to-capture evidence on the hidden dimensions of young people’s lives in challenging circumstances. We explore how research-led applied arts can advance participatory methodologies to bridge the gap that often exists between participatory research engaging girls meaningfully within the research process, and knowledge exchange processes that connect policy-making with their lived experiences. We demonstrate how this innovative approach, embedded within a girlhood studies framework, amplifies the voices of those marginalised by gender and age in urban settings. It co-creates the (safe) spaces, resources and tools to recognise, explore and intervene against systemic inequalities and injustices. Research-led applied arts provide mechanisms for messaging girls’ concerns and perspectives in a non-threatening manner directly to those with the power to address them. Such situated knowledge exchange is crucial if we are to sustainably challenge inequitable gender regimes in ways that respond directly to the everyday challenges faced by girls in developing contexts.

Keywords:

• Applied arts
• participatory methods
• Uganda
• urban
• youth

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the 54 girls and staff of a Jinja primary school, without whom this project could not have happened. We extend our greatest thanks to Jinja Municipal Council for their partnership, and the stakeholders who shared their time seeking solutions to embedded inequalities. This paper was funded by a Leeds Social Science Institute/Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator Award and the University of Leeds School of Geography Impact Fund.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leeds Social Sciences Institute/Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account Grant, and the University of Leeds School of Geography Impact Fund.

Notes on contributors

Katie McQuaid

Katie McQuaid is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. Her research interests are focused on gender and sexuality, local perspectives on climate change, (inter)generational relationships, and human rights in informal urban settings. Her work creatively combines applied arts and feminist ethnographic methodologies in participatory action research.

Robert M. Vanderbeck

Robert Vanderbeck is Professor of Human Geography and Head of the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. His research interests are focused on issues of social difference, identities, relationships, and contemporary processes of social and legal exclusion. He has particular interests in the geographies of children and young people; intergenerational spaces and relationships; and religion and sexuality in the public sphere.

Lillian Mbabazi

Lillian Mbabazi is Lecturer in the Department of Performing Arts and Film at Makerere University, Uganda. Her research and applied practice are focused on young people and children, with particular interests in drama in education and theatre for development. She has led projects focused on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, girls’ education, refugee youth, youth and governance, and intergenerational women’s theatre.