Co-creating knowledge on bicycling: a decolonial feminist participatory action research approach to arts-based methods

ABSTRACT

The colonising tendencies of Western research — in which Indigenous and racialised bodies are deliberately misrepresented — has justified the exploitation and violence towards these communities. Within the field of qualitative sport research, there is a need for research methodologies that relinquish power from the researcher, into the hands of the research communities . This paper aims to demonstrate the utility of a decolonial feminist participatory action research (PAR) approach to arts-based methods for sport research through an exploration of fieldwork with a Toronto-based bicycle organisation. A combination of data collection methods were used, including: 1) arts-based methods; 2) semi-structured interviews; and 3) reflexive journal notes. The results of this project demonstrated that a decolonial feminist PAR approach to arts-based methods can: 1) illuminate the non-human actors within art and bicycling; 2) help research colleagues critique systems of oppression; and 3) facilitate research colleague agency. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the importance of co-creating knowledge within sport scholarship to illuminate the diverse knowledges of those vulnerable to systemic oppression and erasure. This is a novel direction for challenging power relations within sport research and within sociological research more broadly.

KEYWORDS:

• Bicycles
• co-creating knowledge
• participatory action research
• decolonial feminist theory
• arts-based methods

Acknowledgements

This research paper was funded by a MITACS Accelerate grant with contributions from The Bike Brigade; the SSHRC insight grant titled ‘Wheels of Change? Exploring “Bicycles for Development” for Women and Girls in the (Post-)Pandemic Contexts of Canada, Uganda and Nicaragua’ (2021-2026. PI: Lyndsay Hayhurst, York University. Co-Is: Mitch McSweeney, University of Minnesota; Brian Wilson, University of British Columbia; Francine Darroch, Carleton University; Cathy van Ingen, Brock University; Brad Millington, Brock University, Grant number: 435-2021-1188); and the CFI grant number 2019-0455.

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and time. We also thank the Bike Brigade community for collaborating on the project. Finally, thank you to the research colleagues for their invaluable contributions and insights.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Racialisation is the process by which people have been classified by ‘race’, despite no biological evidence that race-based differences exist between humans. By definition, White people are racialised, however, White people do not face the same consequences of racialisation as do other racialised groups. The term ‘racialised’ refers to groups of people that have been socially constructed as ‘different’, and thus have been subject to discrimination based on characteristics such as skin colour, accents, names, citizenship, beliefs, etc (Ontario Human Rights Commission 2009).

2. Two-Spirit refers to a culturally-specific identity for Indigenous people whose gender identity, spiritual identity and/or sexual orientation is both female and male spirited (Government of Canada 2022).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Mitacs; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Jessica R. Nachman

Jessica R. Nachman (she/they): Jess is a researcher and graduate student in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. Their research interests include mobility justice, decolonial methodologies, and queer and trans of colour theories.

Lyndsay M. C. Hayhurst

Lyndsay M. C. Hayhurst (she/her): Lyndsay is a Tier 2 York Research Chair in ‘Sport, Gender and Development and Digital Participatory Research’, Director of the ‘DREAMING Sport Lab’ (Digital participatory Research in Equity, Access, Mobility, Innovation aNd Gender in Sport Lab). She is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. Her research interests include sport for development and peace (SDP); gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health in/through SDP; digital participatory action research; trauma-and violence-informed approaches to SDP; cultural studies of girlhood; postcolonial feminist theory; global governance, international relations and corporate social responsibility; SDP in Indigenous communities; and the gender, sport and environment nexus.

Mitchell McSweeney

Mitchell McSweeney (he/him): Mitch is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management in the School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota. His research interests include sport for development and peace, social entrepreneurship and innovation, participatory action research, institutional theory, postcolonial theory, corporate social responsibility, diaspora, and forced migration and sport.

Rachel Wang

Rachel Wang (she/her): Rachel is an environmental practitioner and community organizer with ten years of experience in building stakeholder relationships, strategic planning, and global communications. Her main practice is facilitating space for creative and unconventional methods that advance environmental justice goals.