Reflections on measuring the soundness of the digital storytelling method applied to three Cape Flats vulnerable communities affected by drought, fire and flooding in Cape Town

Abstract

Aligned to the Sendai framework, the UKRI GCRF Water and Fire research project aims to co-produce knowledge with residents of three vulnerable communities in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town to generate adaptive solutions that strengthen resilience against the environmental disasters of drought, flooding and fire outbreaks. To achieve this aim, the research team employed household surveys and participatory visual methods including digital storytelling (DST), community mapping and photovoice with residents of three affected communities. This paper focuses on validating the DST method used in the ‘Water and Fire’ project and interrogates how well the DST process conforms to six types of validity, namely, participatory, intersubjectivity, catalytic, contextual, ethical and empathic validity as guided by the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research (ICPHR). Twenty-five digital stories on the overarching theme of resilience were produced by 25 Cape Flats residents.We suggest that participatory validity was achieved through participants making decisions about the stories and details they wanted to share. Intersubjective validity was fostered by involving community advisory members in DST process design, through co-conceptualizing resilience with participants and by evaluating the DST experience. Catalytic validity was achieved when participants screened their digital stories in shared learning spaces to convey how they respond to and live with disasters at numerous community and policy engagement events. Contextual validity was met by exploring relevant environmental disasters affecting the Cape Flats communities. Ethical validity was attained by creating safe and supportive spaces, enabling dynamic informed consent and transferring ownership of the digital stories to the story tellers. Connecting participants through collective sharing of individual disaster experiences, lessons-learned and adaptive strategies fostered empathy.We recommend complementing DST methods with other research methods like surveys, and focus group discussions, while evaluating the transformative potential of the DST process and stakeholder engagement events, to enable better catalytic validity. We advocate for collaborative and inclusive approaches with vulnerable communities alongside stakeholders and statutory bodies in multi-stakeholder engagement events. We conclude that digital stories are an effective and valid conduit for knowledge co-production with vulnerable communities in the context of climate change resilience as these methods create opportunities for affected communities to raise their concerns and share their experiences.