Intergenerational place-based digital storytelling: a more-than-visual research method

ABSTRACT

The use of visual research methods with young people—such as photo diaries and mental mapping—risks reproducing a focus on local-scale micro-politics at the expense of broader contextualization. We contend that combining visual and narrative methods through digital storytelling enables young people to represent their everyday lives within broader social and political processes. Working in post-conflict urban areas in Lebanon, we found that this method allowed young people to disrupt the dominant geopolitical narratives that so often frame their lives and surroundings. This paper provides a detailed explanation of our place-based approach to digital storytelling, including a discussion of ethical and practical concerns. Our approach eschews the individual testimonial technique typical of digital storytelling. Rather than a tool for introspective self-reflection, place-based digital storytelling encourages inter-subjective extrospection, a process of exploring how individual stories unfold within broader geopolitical contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual methods
• youth
• critical geopolitics
• divided societies
• Lebanon

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a European Research Council Advanced Grant entitled: “Youth Citizenship in Divided Societies: Between Cosmopolitanism, Nation, and Civil Society” (ERC 295392.).