For the European Open and Digital Learning Week organised by EDEN DLE, I was invited to deliver a talk as part of an exciting panel discussion (on Monday the 6th of November at 3pm CET) facilitated by Prof. Antonella Poce, University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy.
The panel explores how we promote wellbeing within the university context and what role could the use of technology and heritage play. The session, through the participation of seven experts from different European and non-European institutions, aims to investigate research experiences in the field of promoting and evaluating wellbeing in formal Higher Education contexts, especially through the use of heritage and technology as educational tools.
The title of my presentation is: Digital Storytelling with museum objects: exploring the benefits of co-creation within diverse learning communities.
If you want to join us, please, register via this link.
Our latest Open Access publication is inspired by the panel we delivered at the International Digital Storytelling Conference in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore areas, US, in June 2023.
Please, read the abstract below.
A new, hybrid way of conceiving Digital Storytelling (DS) in applied research is presented here as an essential trigger to challenge, expand, and eventually re-frame the way in which DS is currently codified. The three methodological perspectives described in this paper share a common understanding of practice-as-research. They position themselves within three distinct disciplines—illustration, animation, and the creative arts in education—but have a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity. Each of them is trying to respond to a specific cultural and personal issue (e.g., sense of identity, mental health, attainment within competitive environments, etc.) and also serves as a prompt to reflect on a potential new aspect of DS as research, linked to the how, the what, and the why of these multiple and complementary applications. The intention of this paper is not to propose one alternative way of operating, but to inspire other researchers wanting to apply this approach in their work to constantly challenge any pre-conceived form and process, while prioritizing the democratization of knowledge production and informing their research process with co-design and participatory principles. The take-away message from these three case studies is that DS will be, in fact, embraced by the new generations of researchers as a sustainable practice all the more, as its many disruptions will generate spaces for co-creation and self-representation to emerge, and will stimulate everyone involved in the research process to challenge their own way of thinking and to go beyond what was codified by others and by their own practice too.
Please, cite as: Liguori A, Sung KJ, McLaughlin L, Stuttle J. What Digital Storytelling Means to the New Generation of Researchers. Social Sciences. 2023; 12(9):485. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090485
Co-developing a Framework for Adaptive Participatory Storytelling Approaches (APSA)
Another paper just published from the DRY project, exploring how applied storytelling can support knowledge exchange and public engagement.
Please, read the abstract below.
The transdisciplinary Drought Risk and You (DRY) project aimed to interweave storytelling and science as a way of increasing the different voices and types of knowledge (specialist, local) within drought risk decision-making in the UK. This paper critically reflects on our emergent process of drawing across different methodologies to create Adaptive Participatory Storytelling Approaches (APSA). APSA enable more tailoring to people and setting than existing methods, recognizing the specificity of local risk contexts and communities, and in terms of social dynamics, cultural values and local knowledge. APSA are situated, storytelling methodologies applied in the social sciences and arts/humanities, giving strong attention to meaningful participation and sustainable coproduction in both process and outputs. The paper offers other researchers and practitioners insights into working with APSA as a suite of creative storytelling options prioritizing methodological principles of active listening and adapting. APSA require creative thinking along multiple spectra, including how to balance different axes in APSA including: topic (drought risk)-focused with topic (drought risk)-peripheral or oblique, participant-led with researcher-led, and visualization-led with audio-led. We reflect on the challenges, opportunities and values of co-working with APSA, and offer a flexible framework for its application and iterative evaluation embedded through the process. We propose this as a starting point for other transdisciplinary projects to tackle themes that prove difficult for communities to connect with during community-engaged research, in this case, hidden risks like drought and climate change. This is timely given the power and mounting popularity of storytelling for behavior change, research insight and policy, and the need to capture and share different knowledges for climate resilience.
Please, cite as: Roberts, L, Liguori, A, McEwen, L, Wilson, M. (2023). The challenge of engaging communities on hidden risks: co-developing a framework for Adaptive Participatory Storytelling Approaches (APSA), Journal of Extreme Events, ISSN: 2345-7376. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737623410026
Grateful and delighted to have contributed a chapter on co-designing a digital storytelling toolkit for personal and collective wellbeing to this very interesting new volume on museum education edited by Prof Antonella Poce (Università di Roma Tor Vergata).
Please, read the abstract below.
Social interaction between peers is an essential factor in the development of an inclusive practice within formal and non-formal Education, aiming at increasing individual and collective well-being. Starting from this premise, Digital Storytelling was identified as the core methodology of this research, considering the key values of its original model and its flexibility as a participatory practice that enhances creativity and collaboration in a context in which mutual learning and peer support are prioritised. Considering the ongoing global challenge of funding mental health services, there is fertile ground for innovation, especially in the area of creative, online approaches to mental health literacy and healthy relationships among young people. This paper explores the potential of applying participatory approaches, co-design techniques and digital storytelling as mixed methods to support youth mental well-being.
Please, cite as: Liguori, A., Co-designing a Digital Storytelling Toolkit to Improve Youth Mental Wellbeing, in Poce, A. (ed) Empirical Studies in Museum Education 3, E.S.I. – Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, pp.143-160, ISBN: 978-88-495-5277-5.
Delighted to see our work on Amplifying Community Voices for Sustainable Climate Adaptation. Future Yetu: A Digital Storytelling Project in the Nairobi Slum of Korogocho published on The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Always wonderful to work with the amazing artist and activist Daniel Onyango and the brilliant landscape architect Pia Jonsson! And this time we were also joined by Humphrey Otieno, whose mission is to involve communities in informing and improving policies in Nairobi.
Please, read our abstract here.
There is increasing awareness of how crucial is developing participatory approaches that could effectively dismantle knowledge hierarchies and facilitate conversations across various sectors of the society in environmental decision-making (Konisky and Beierle, Soc Nat Resour 14(9):815–826, 2001). Digital storytelling and other creative approaches can assist individuals to overcome barriers to participation (Liguori et al., Front Environ Sci 8:589856, 2021) as well as having a collective function in building a sense of community (McEwen et al., Reweaving urban water-community relations: creative, participatory river ‘daylighting’ and local hydrocitizenship. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2020). Nevertheless, storytelling is often applied as a small-group workshop activity, that can rarely produce large-scale impact beyond the community in which it is applied, and often reveals its limitations in the replicability of the creative process without the presence of an expert facilitator. The Future Yetu project is described and analyzed as a case study to provide new insights on how to co-design creative approaches and tools that can facilitate meaningful participation, amplify community voices, promote alternative livelihood initiatives, and influence policymaking for sustainable climate adaptation. A set of recommendations on how to expand knowledge exchange opportunities between residents and policymakers are shared as a way of inspiring other communities that have similar environmental issues, with the necessary acknowledgment and deep consideration of local challenges and opportunities. In fact, one of the key lessons learned through this project is that community engagement around issues related to climate change must be tailored to local needs and imply the involvement of committed stakeholders at a very early stage. By analyzing a co-creative, 4-step process based on issue-idea-solution-implementation, this chapter offers insights on new creative and democratic ways of working with not only “hard to reach” groups, but also “hard to engage” community members, based on dialogue and social capital.
Antonia Liguori / Participatory Storytelling 