Digital participatory Research in Equity, Access, Mobility, Innovation aNd Gender in Sport Lab

Funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund, The DREAMING Sport Lab presents an important opportunity to engage and coordinate stakeholders from across the globe in Digital Participatory Research (DPR) around sport, gender and development; physical cultural studies; sport for social justice; health and human rights. In particular, Dr. Hayhurst uses DPR to explore the ways in which organizations, communities and marginalized individuals experience sport, gender and development initiatives - or the growing use of sport to achieve gender and development objectives – particularly in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Her research aims to: 1) expose the consequences and impacts of SGD programs as informed by the perspectives of marginalized communities and participants; 2) advance theory in physical cultural studies, postcolonial feminist theory and sociocultural studies of sport for social justice and development; and 3) prioritize the voices of those targeted by SGD initiatives and add to SGD-relevant policy.

The immense potential of digital participatory research lies in the opportunity to use visual platforms (e.g., photography, video, photocollaging, etc.) – sometimes in combination with GPS community participatory mapping – to actively engage a wide variety of stakeholders from diverse social locations in a synergistic discussion of pressing global social issues. Through the power of visual mediums, the DPR SGD Lab team is able to build on current theoretical and methodological work in SGD by finding unique ways to foreground and enhance the voices of participants in these programs who are traditionally marginalized. Put differently, through ‘traditional’ qualitative research (e.g., interviews), the voices of marginalized SGD participants may potentially be ignored or missed altogether. Alternatively, through DPR, our research team, collaborators and relevant stakeholders are well-poised to expose hidden social relations and offer deep insights into community needs.

Watch this space for further updates and follow us on twitter: @dreaming_lab