Filmic geographies: audio-visual, embodied-material

Although conventionally described as a ‘visual’ method, film-making is also increasingly used within research on embodiment. However, much remains to be said about the ability of filmic methods to enhance researchers’ capacity to think and research through the body. Drawing on my experience of making four research films, in this paper, I attempt to advance this agenda in three steps. First, I introduce anthropological work on the filming body to shed light on the technologically-mediated encounters that enfold around a camera and discuss how they might inform geographical thinking. Second, I describe the corporeally-mediated object ecologies that take shape within the filming setting and highlight how a camera might make objects ‘speak’. Finally, I discuss the affective dimension of screening research films to research participants and the contribution of such intense events to the articulation of collective matters of concerns. Through these three themes, I make the case for understanding knowledge production as located not merely in encounters with filmed audio-visual content, but also in the embodied-material encounters of bodies and objects around the filming and screening apparatus. I finally discuss the implications of these reflections for conceptualising the ‘body’ within embodied methods in social and cultural geography

Everyday political geographies of community‐building: exploring the practices of three Zimbabwean permaculture communities

Permaculture is an approach to sustainable design thinking, agriculture, and community, as well as a globalized movement. This article explores how different practices and processes of permaculture have generated different political registers of “community,” at three permaculture sites in Zimbabwe. Speaking to recent online media that asks “Is permaculture political?,” as well as to the academic literature critiquing localized environmental initiatives as “postpolitical,” the article adopts a feminist political ecology (FPE) framework to discuss two modalities in which the geographies of community-building can be registered as political. First, I look at how subjectivities and intracommunity power relations have been reshaped through participatory practices of governance, taking on entrenched gender- and age-based power relations in particular. Second, comes the idea of community as a more-than-human ontology. An FPE analysis offers an original perspective on how permaculture has become actualized in the Zimbabwean context. The research approach built on Gibson-Graham's calls to engage performatively with examples of diverse economies and aimed to serve the efforts of these communities in a small way, by celebrating and documenting their activities and creating public media outputs. Contributing to the literature on permaculture, as well as to debates around community-based environmental movements, an FPE perspective frames these community-building efforts in terms of everyday political practices and performances. I conclude that while FPE draws attention to these everyday politics, permaculture practitioners actualize them and in doing so, make a much-needed contribution to cultivating, or “worlding” diverse, more-than-human economies

Participatory problem analysis of crop activities in rural Tanzania with attention to gender and wealth: ‘setting the scene’ to enhance relevance and avoid exclusion in pro-poor innovation projects

Many Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) projects continue to treat smallholder farmers as a homogenous social group and ignore the de-facto exclusion of certain subgroups that are hard to reach due to a variety of social, economic or cultural factors. This study took place as a first step in an AR4D project (Trans-SEC) that focussed on innovation testing with smallholder farmers in Central Tanzania. A participatory problem analysis aimed to develop understanding by researchers of the farmers’ crop production system and the local context. A participatory approach was employed to identify the main problems from the perspectives of farmers, giving attention to socio-economic and gender-related differences. Extracting from a larger participatory situation analysis, this paper describes the approach, methods and results of the problem analysis and also incorporates results from a household survey of the key problems faced by different smallholder farmers across four case study sites in the Morogoro and Dodoma regions of Tanzania. Results from the participatory sessions contextualised the quantitative results derived from the concurrent household survey. The paper highlights the critical problematic circumstances of low-income households, which are suffering most from inter-connected problems across their crop activity system. Results point to the problem of a lack of labour and time available to women, especially those heading households or of lower economic status. We argue from these results that intersecting, socially differentiated problem situations are an important consideration in defining relevant points of entry for AR4D projects and for shaping subsequent stages of research design to foster more inclusive, pro-poor processes. We conclude by outlining the benefits and challenges of conducting a participatory situation analysis as a first step in an AR4D project

Experience with participatory video proposals: assisting community organisations with innovation project planning

In conventional agricultural research for development (AR4D) projects, decisions about rural innovation activities often rest with scientists. In transdisciplinary AR4D projects in Kenya and Tanzania, we designed a methodology aiming to give key decision-making rights to the farmer groups involved. Five collaborating groups were facilitated to explore different innovation possibilities and they then put forward ideas that they wished to implement. Next, the groups were invited to apply for a small grant using a video proposal. This practical note provides information on the participatory video proposal process and highlights some benefits and challenges experienced by farmers and scientists

Participatory video proposals: a tool for empowering farmer groups in rural innovation processes?

While efforts are increasingly made to democratize research relationships, empower participants and include marginalised voices in agricultural research for development, it is acknowledged that power imbalances in knowledge creation remain integral to researcher-participant relations. Moreover, published results seldom report on the different dimensions that empowerment can encompass. This paper addresses this gap, presenting an original methodological approach for collaborating with smallholder farmers and developing an analytical framework to critically assess associated modalities of empowerment. With the intention of developing more democratic processes of knowledge production to support innovation processes, five smallholder farmer groups were invited to apply for action funds to co-develop innovations to enhance livelihoods. Employing participatory video (PV), groups applied for the grants using a ‘video proposal’. Group members collaboratively produced videos representing their problems, aims and innovation plans. Key findings around group empowerment are presented and reflected upon with regard to the different modalities of “power-to”, “power-with”, “power-within” and “power-over”. The PV proposal process proved to be a good tool for supporting farmer group capacity building and the development of competencies in relation to farmers' rural innovation projects. The process enhanced farmer groups’ “power-to” in terms of planning capacities. This fostered motivation for action and a sense of collective ownership; thus building “power-with” at the group level. The understanding of power mobilised in this paper enabled us to highlight some context-specific limitations to democratising research relationships and creating more inclusive spaces for participatory action research and rural innovation development. These are related to entrenched socio-cultural power dynamics within the groups and to possibilities to sustain the empowerment process beyond the duration of the project. Nevertheless, funding agencies and local rural development organisations could consider the method discussed in this paper as a valuable tool for assisting marginalised groups in accessing innovation funds

Participatory Video with Children and Young People

This book chapter is in closed access.The changing discipline of children’s geographies (Holloway, 2014) has entailed methodological proliferation and diversification (van Blerk and Kesby, 2008). Ways of conducting research have been informed and affected by a number of debates, including about children’s participation (Matthews, Limb and Taylor, 1999) and power (Holt, 2004), structural difference among children and young people (Hopkins, 2013) and between children and adults (Jones, 2008), emotional dimensions of research with children and of children’s lives themselves (Blazek and Windram-Geddes, 2013), the questioned primacy of the voice and the problematic legitimacy of other modes of knowledge (Kraftl, 2013), the increased recognition of childhoods outside the Minority Global North (Jeffrey, 2012), the importance of intergenerational relations (Punch and Tisdall, 2012), increased inter-disciplinary (Holloway, 2014) and collaborative praxis (Mills, 2013), demand for policy-focused research (Vanderbeck, 2008) and not least a range of technological advancements facilitating research (Mikkelsen and Christensen, 2009). The emergence of participatory video in geographical research with children and young people can be traced explicitly to most of these debates and it has been recognized as having a potential to shape further methodological but also epistemological and political agendas of geographies of children and young people. Yet, its use and especially published written accounts in geographical work with children and young people remain scarce. This chapter reviews participatory video as an emerging methodological approach to geographies of children and young people over the last decade. It discusses the place of participatory video in the sub-discipline in three steps. First, it examines the scope of participatory video in the wider field of social sciences and humanities, and it explores its emergence in geographical scholarship on children and young people at the interface of the induction of participatory video to geography in general, the shaping of the discipline of children’s geographies, and the emerging work with participatory video and young people in other social scientific disciplines. Second, the chapter presents current achievements and dilemmas of participatory video in the production of knowledge in the work with children and young people and suggests possible routes through which participatory video could play an even more important epistemological role in the sub-discipline. Finally, the chapter explores ethical and political issues related to participatory video work with children and young people and relates them to wider questions of geographical research

Safety of hospital discharge before return of bowel function after elective colorectal surgery

Background: Ileus is common after colorectal surgery and is associated with an increased risk of postoperative complications. Identifying features of normal bowel recovery and the appropriateness for hospital discharge is challenging. This study explored the safety of hospital discharge before the return of bowel function. Methods: A prospective, multicentre cohort study was undertaken across an international collaborative network. Adult patients undergoing elective colorectal resection between January and April 2018 were included. The main outcome of interest was readmission to hospital within 30 days of surgery. The impact of discharge timing according to the return of bowel function was explored using multivariable regression analysis. Other outcomes were postoperative complications within 30 days of surgery, measured using the Clavien–Dindo classification system. Results: A total of 3288 patients were included in the analysis, of whom 301 (9·2 per cent) were discharged before the return of bowel function. The median duration of hospital stay for patients discharged before and after return of bowel function was 5 (i.q.r. 4–7) and 7 (6–8) days respectively (P < 0·001). There were no significant differences in rates of readmission between these groups (6·6 versus 8·0 per cent; P = 0·499), and this remained the case after multivariable adjustment for baseline differences (odds ratio 0·90, 95 per cent c.i. 0·55 to 1·46; P = 0·659). Rates of postoperative complications were also similar in those discharged before versus after return of bowel function (minor: 34·7 versus 39·5 per cent; major 3·3 versus 3·4 per cent; P = 0·110). Conclusion: Discharge before return of bowel function after elective colorectal surgery appears to be safe in appropriately selected patients