From inspired to inspiring: community- based research, digital storytelling and a networked Paralympic Movement

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Digital storytelling was developed in the mid-1990s as a workshop-based practice whereby ‘ordinary’ people were taught skills to tell personal stories through short videos (Hartley & McWilliam, 2009; Lambert, 2013). Originally conceptualised as a form of citizen media, digital storytelling has been recognised as a powerful tool for doing community-based narrative research (Gubrium, 2009; Gubrium & Turner, 2010). This recognition has led academics to take digital storytelling worldwide in order to explore multiple topics from the perspectives of community members. The popularity of digital storytelling as a research method has grown as web-based and mobile technologies become increasingly accessible and embedded in everyday practices. Participants in digital storytelling projects now take photos, videos and voice recordings using a single smartphone or tablet, and edit these stories using widely available and often free software. While researchers on the ground have been quick to capitalise on these technological advances and integrate them in creative ways into their research processes, the definition of ‘community’ in community-based digital storytelling research has remained remarkably static. Specifically, there is a gap in the literature addressing the practicalities and implications of doing digital storytelling with individuals and groups who are embedded in networked societies and who regularly and easily communicate with others using digital platforms. These networks challenge common understandings of communities as spatially and temporally bound and propose instead that communities be understood as networks of individuals who share identities and practices, and extend each other support – whether in ‘real life’ or in ‘virtual’ contexts (Rheingold, 2012). In this chapter we explore how the rise of the digital age has expanded not only the tools available to scholars doing digital storytelling, but also how it can fundamentally challenge how we think of the communities we do research with and how we understand them as embedded in larger virtual networks. This chapter is empirically informed by our own experiences of doing narrative-based research with young disabled athletes, coaches, managers and parents from a local ‘inclusive football programme’. We discuss our original intention to use digital storytelling to interrogate popular dialogues of how the Paralympic Games ‘inspire’ young disabled people to pursue sport. We then describe howthe individuals involved in the story circle shifted the focus of the research from telling stories of ‘being inspired’ to telling stories ‘to inspire’ others, leveraging their online networks to distribute the stories they created. Throughout the discussion, strands of narrative theory are brought together with emerging understandings of how local, offline groups use online spaces to circulate digital content, thus participating in globally dispersed virtual networks or communities. In particular, we draw on Frank’s (2010) conceptualisation of the agentic potential of stories to act upon others and Richardson’s (1988) writing on ‘collective stories’. It is our intent that this account of our own forays into digital storytelling, complete with stories of how the project evolved through dialogue with the story circle participants, will provide others with practical examples of how they might use digital storytelling as a research method. Further, we seek to encourage further theorising on how digital stories can move from the offline local story circles into online networks to become part of global collective stories. Andrea’s interest in this project stems from her own involvement in the Paralympic Movement. While attempting to recruit members of the Canadian Paralympic Team to participate in a research project in 2008, Andrea found herself recruited. She was asked by an athlete with a visual impairment to temporarily fill in as a para-Nordic racing guide (a sighted skier who skis in front of the athlete and guides them around the race course using a two-way radio system). The position became a permanent one and Andrea went on to compete with the athlete at the 2010 Paralympic Games. She has since competed in two Paralympic Games and volunteered and coached for many para-sport programmes. Her involvement in para-sport has shaped her research interests and she has developed and led multiple projects exploring topics related to the Paralympic Movement, with a particular focus on how athletes with disabilities use online tools and online spaces to engage in advocacy and address discrimination in the sport system. Brett has worked with disabled people, including athletes, for over 15 years. His interest in this project was animated by a long-standing curiosity about stories and what effect they might have on, for and with people. He has a passion for qualitative research and the possibilities of this craft not just for understanding lives but also for improving human relationships in communities and for challenging social oppression.