Creative Activism, Creating Pleasure: The Power of Emotion in Participatory Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper the authors consider the power of emotion in participatory research and explore feelings of pleasure and joy that were experienced through processes of creative activism by researchers, trainers and participants during their involvement in feminist qualitative research conducted as part of the Global Gender and Cultures of Equality project (GlobalGRACE project: globalgrace.net). Specifically, we focus on one of the research projects within GlobalGRACE concerned with ‘Women Working in Men’s Worlds’. This project is working through participatory film and photography to enhance gender equality and wellbeing with a group of female construction workers based in Sylhet, north eastern Bangladesh. Here we are particularly interested in the dynamics of overlapping emotions: pleasure, friendship and joy that emerged during the course of the study and the experiences of three groups of participants: the research team, the group of young male audio-visual trainers, and the participant women.