Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces the idea of methodological layering within storytelling as an approach to participatory research. We argue that layering in storytelling enables the construction of counternarratives that contribute to the decolonising of knowledge by the storytellers themselves.

Paper long abstract:

This paper introduces the idea of methodological layering within storytelling as an approach to participatory research. We refer to layering in three ways. First, layering includes the different versions of a story that bring together affect, relationships, events and place. Second, the layering of the story reflects an evolving understanding of the self (what is my own story?). Finally, layering is informed by an understanding of wider structures or frames (how do wider systems interact with my story?). We trace how these layers are iteratively developed through visual, discursive and embodied forms of knowledge within a creative storytelling approach.

This approach emerged from practice, particularly in Africa, in contexts characterised by oppression, precarity and injustice. Within these contexts, research is informed by colonialism and often reinforces hierarchies between researcher and researched, among others. We argue that layering within storytelling helps us to work with the complex social issues bound up with deep and persistent injustices, but also to directly challenge the colonial nature of research. While some methodological practices fix or reify the frame of identities, this paper explores how methodological layering engages critically with notions of identity. We trace how identity is framed in a complex and constitutive way through iteration and layering. This offers the possibility that through cycles of telling, listening and re-telling, storytellers see themselves, others and society differently. Layering in storytelling then enables the construction of counternarratives that contribute to the decolonising of knowledge by the storytellers themselves.