Digital Ethnography as Planning Praxis: An Experiment with Film as Social Research, Community Engagement and Policy Dialogue

Abstract

Stories and storytelling are part of a post-positivist paradigm of inquiry influenced by phenomenology, ethnography and narrative analysis, along with the evolution of visual methods in social research. New information and communication technologies today provide the opportunity to explore storytelling through multimedia, including video/filmmaking, in what we describe as digital ethnography. While there has been a tradition in the planning field of using film for advocacy purposes since the 1920s, we argue for a new direction informed by collaborative planning theory and situational ethics.

This paper reports on a three-year, three-stage research project in which we experimented with the use of film as a mode of inquiry, a form of meaning making, a way of knowing, and a means of provoking public dialogue around planning and policy issues (in this case, community development and the social integration of immigrants). We explored the expressive as well as analytical possibilities of film in conducting social research and provoking community engagement and dialogue, taking advantage of the aesthetic and involving dimensions of film as narrative. The research question was a socio-political one: how do immigrants become integrated into a specific social fabric, and how do they acquire a sense of belonging? The site of the research was a culturally diverse neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, and the specific focus was a place-based local institution, the Collingwood Neighbourhood House. The paper concludes with critical reflections on the use of film in this research project, focusing on ethical issues, power relationships, insider/outsider dilemmas, and reciprocity.

Keywords:

• Multimedia
• digital ethnography
• social inquiry
• community engagement
• immigrant integration
• collaborative planning

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and Metropolis (RIIM).

Notes

1. Multimedia refers to the combination of multiple contents (both traditional and digital: texts, still images, animations, audio and video productions) and interactive platforms (offline interactive CD roms, online websites and forums, digital environments) in the urban policy and planning fields.

2. In December 2006 the National Film Board of Canada agreed to become the official distributor of the film, which was finally released in late 2007.

3. The Metropolis Research Network is funded jointly by the Canadian government (through the Department of Citizenship and Immigration) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and is now in its third five-year funding cycle. There are five Centres of Excellence located in 5 Canadian cities, each of which involves a collaboration between universities, government agencies and NGOs in that city. We were funded through Metropolis BC (British Columbia). See www.mbc.metropolis.net

4. All told, we have personally screened the film at 32 venues between November 2005 and July 2009.

5. The film was awarded an Honourable Mention at the International Federation of Housing and Planning, International Film and Video Competition, Geneva, 2006, and a Special Mention at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, 2006.

6. The Community Approaches and Initiatives Division of Human Resources and Social Development Canada initiated a Round Table discussion in November 2008 on place-based policy, research, and initiatives with the intention of developing a national policy framework and learning network. Leonie was invited to Ottawa in March 2009 to address and have a dialogue with federal public servants in a series known as The Armchair Discussion, organized by the multiculturalism branch of the federal department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, a discussion which was also webcast simultaneously.

7. Surrey is an outer suburban municipality which thirty years ago had very few immigrants but now is the fastest growing area in the region and almost as culturally diverse as Collingwood.

8. Thanks to Jessica Hallenbeck for this insight.

9. Our current documentary project in fact tells this story through the eyes of two First Nations communities in north central British Columbia (Attili & Sandercock, 2010).