The politics of co-production and inclusive deliberation in participatory research

Abstract

This research engages in a methodological analysis of a participatory art project employing PhotoVoice with refugee and local community youths across two distinct sites: Istanbul and Johannesburg. The project aimed to facilitate inclusive deliberations among the youth, thereby promoting capacity building, reconciliation, and peacebuilding initiatives. Our focus is grounded in the concept of co-production as a practice and principle of inclusive deliberation within the research design, addressing a spectrum of issues from participant-driven research agenda setting, to the design and execution of the research, the selection and creation of photographs, and their dissemination. By offering a critical examination of how inclusive deliberation manifests in co-production research, we highlight the potentials, complexities, and tensions it generates. We argue that while co-produced action research embodies transversal politics, it does not necessarily disrupt the entrenched power dynamics and politically driven hierarchies within the public sphere.