Participatory methods and critical models: Arts, migration and diaspora

Abstract

This article reflects on a ten-year trajectory of research, predominantly in the East Midlands, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The projects all employed participatory action research methods that involved working in partnership with forced migrants (those situated in the asylum–migration nexus) and community arts organizations to explore the connections between arts, migration and diaspora. The article considers the benefits and issues surrounding this kind of creative, participatory and arts-based work in relation to the transformative potential of art, narrativity and storytelling, and the processes and senses of belonging and place-making experienced by the participants. Key themes raised by the research include the tension between human rights, dignity and humiliation; the role of nation states in the production of refugees; the wider context of globalization and neo-liberalism; and the possibilities for a radical democratic imaginary in arts-based research with migrants.