Document Type

Hungry Cities Research Briefs

Publication Date

1-2025

Abstract

In the early months of 2024, I acted as the primary facilitator of a Photovoice study with eleven displaced Syrian women who had resettled in the Kitchener-Waterloo area after 2015. The study focused on their physical and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants also discussed the state of their food security over a longer duration following their displacement from Syria. This dialogue focused on their food traditions and daily food practices and examined how these essential activities had been affected after exiting Syria. Cultural food security thus became one of the critical themes of the study. Additionally, the study attempted to understand changes to the respondents’ food accessibility and availability through the years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 to 2022).

The study utilized the Photovoice technique to document and highlight the experiences of these participants. Photovoice is a participatory action methodology which allows respondents to engage more actively in the research process by sharing their stories and lived realities through selected photographs that they have taken (Budig et al., 2018). These images further enable participants to visualize and discuss communityspecific issues during the focus group sessions organized as part of the study (Nykiforuk et al., 2011). For example, a follow-up study with female residents of a low-income neighbourhood in Spain who had previously participated in a Photovoice project found that this participatory method had contributed to three dimensions of empowerment: gain in knowledge and skills, positive change in self-perception, and use of resources (Budig et al., 2018). Another assessment of this method with young indigenous respondents found that it fostered participant autonomy and authority, was culturally appropriate, and was deemed an effective method to engage marginalized groups (Anderson et al., 2023).

In this research brief, I explain the photovoice research method and how it was organized with the Syrian women participants. I also offer some personal and critical reflections on my role as a peer researcher and sole facilitator for this study. I identify some challenges faced during the study and offer some suggestions for future Photovoice projects with similar objectives.

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