Using participatory video for co-production and collaborative research with refugees: critical reflections from the Digital Place-makers program

This article critically reflects on the implementation of participatory video (PV) to explore the perspectives of 14 refugee participants regarding their place-making strategies in the Netherlands. The insights here derive from the experience of co-designing and implementing the Digital Place-makers program: a filmmaking course that relies on basic editing training and story-telling. PV has been strongly criticized for its attendance to researchers’ output requirements during the production process. We address this issue by focusing on our role as facilitators in acquiring editing skills and capacities that allow participants to produce their films as autonomously as possible. In doing so, we found that engaging in editing techniques during PV had multiple benefits for the refugees, such as enabling a pathway for regaining confidence and highlighting social injustice in their communities. We also argue that knowledge co-production in refugee research must question labels of vulnerability that prevent participants from enjoying authorship of their productions.