Resistance as method: unhappiness, group feeling, and the limits of participation in a digital storytelling workshop

Abstract

This paper offers a narrative case study of Mirabel, one participant in a digital storytelling workshop for women who were newcomers to Canada, whose experience compelled me to rethink conceptualizations of participation in social justice-oriented, community-based participatory media projects. Drawing on the work of Sara Ahmed, I consider how Mirabel’s resistance to the ‘promise of happiness’ offered by the group was interpreted by others as a failure to participate. Conversely, I suggest that Mirabel’s experience and her digital story are generative for thinking about resistance as a method of participation and a political resource for the group. I argue that conceptualizations of participation should be complicated to include the kinds of agency demonstrated by participants like Mirabel who resist the norms of the digital storytelling workshop and group culture.

Keywords:

• Digital storytelling
• participatory media
• resistance
• happiness
• participation

Note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Pseudonym chosen by the participant.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and undertaken with the invaluable support of my co-investigators and colleagues Bronwen Low and Paula Salvio.

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and undertaken with the invaluable support of my co-investigators and colleagues Bronwen Low and Paula Salvio.

Notes on contributors

Chloë Brushwood Rose

Chloë Brushwood Rose is an Associate Professor of Education at York University. Her research interests include visual research methods and participatory media, psychoanalytic theories of teaching and learning, and feminist and queer cultures.