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Paper short abstract:

This study analyses ethics in participatory videography, using Know Your City TV by SDI as a case. It confronts traditional ethics, advocating for ethical engagement that emphasises agency, justice, safety, and addresses power imbalance, promoting theoretical innovation and equitable research praxis

Paper long abstract:

This paper advocates for a critical re-evaluation of ethical principles in participatory videography (PV), focusing on its potential to empower historically marginalised groups. It contends that in development research, the combination of visual methods, digital technology acceleration, and participation forefronts PV for its methodological and epistemological potentials, capable of disrupting entrenched power imbalances. However, PV aimed at reshaping social dynamics necessitates a reconsideration of ethical practices, especially regarding principles of beneficence, privacy, and ownership. The study challenges the notion that compliance with formal ethical standards suffices for responsible research. Instead, it highlights the need for reflexivity and emergent ethics, which are critically examined in the distinct sites of visual interpretation, the ‘reading’ of image, the ‘writing’ or production of image, and their circulation and ‘audiencing’ (Rose, 1996).

Qualitative research methodologies are employed, drawing from multiple disciplines, to enrich understanding of ethical practices in PV. Through the case study of Know Your City TV, an initiative by Slum Dwellers International youth federations, it illustrates the grounded application of ethical considerations in visual research. Additionally, this study introduces a conceptual framework, tools, and techniques, informed by past and current methodologies, that reconsiders ethics in PV to advance empowerment. It articulates three analytical processes- ‘reading’ for resistance, ‘writing’ for agency and diversity, and ‘audiencing’ for solidarity and political rights- as crucial in enhancing ethical practices.

In our digital age, this paper positions ethics as active tools for discovery, ensuring dignity and safety in research, evolving alongside participatory practices to amplify their empowering capacity.