Visual research has historically been productive in foregrounding marginalised voices through photovoice as alternative to the written and oral forms of participation that dominate public participation. Photovoice projects have however been slow to leverage digital and spatial technologies for reworking the method in ways that enable geospatial analysis and collect structured metadata that can be used in workshops to bring different groups together around unpacking urban problems. The Urban Belonging project contributes to this by testing a new application, UB App, in an empirical study of how participants from seven marginalised communities in Copenhagen experience the city, including ethnic minorities, deaf, homeless, physically disabled, mentally vulnerable, LGBTQ+, and expats in Denmark. From a dataset of 1459 geolocated photos, co-interpreted by participants, the project first unpacks community-specific patterns in how the city creates experiences of belonging for different groups. Second, it examines how participants experience places differently, producing multilayered representations of conflicting viewpoints on belonging. The project hereby brings GIS and digital methods capabilities into photovoice and opens new epistemological flexibilities in the method, making it possible to move between; qualitative and quantitative analysis; bottom-up and top-down lenses on data; and demographic and post-demographic ways or organising participation.
Visual research has historically been productive in foregrounding marginalised voices through photovoice as alternative to the written and oral forms of participation that dominate public participation. Photovoice projects have however been slow to leverage digital and spatial technologies for reworking the method in ways that enable geospatial analysis and collect structured metadata that can be used in workshops to bring different groups together around unpacking urban problems. The Urban Belonging project contributes to this by testing a new application, UB App, in an empirical study of how participants from seven marginalised communities in Copenhagen experience the city, including ethnic minorities, deaf, homeless, physically disabled, mentally vulnerable, LGBTQ+, and expats in Denmark. From a dataset of 1459 geolocated photos, co-interpreted by participants, the project first unpacks community-specific patterns in how the city creates experiences of belonging for different groups. Second, it examines how participants experience places differently, producing multilayered representations of conflicting viewpoints on belonging. The project hereby brings GIS and digital methods capabilities into photovoice and opens new epistemological flexibilities in the method, making it possible to move between; qualitative and quantitative analysis; bottom-up and top-down lenses on data; and demographic and post-demographic ways or organising participation.
Introduction and methodology In self-managed residential homeless care, consumers, and their peers, are in charge. Former consumers (N=24) of a self-managed homeless shelter were interviewed with qualitative structured topic-lists on the benefits they experienced. Former consumers of the program participated as co-researchers, together with students and experienced researchers. This research is part of a larger program researching self-managed residential programs. ResultsIn the self-managed shelter consumers can work on their recovery towards independent living. For the respondents, the self-managed shelter is a place where they can stay for a longer period without the stress of having to look for another place and without the hassle from social workers telling them what to do and how to behave. How the former consumers used this stability and freedom differs. Some worked towards independent living on their own, others also developed skills, self-worth and new social roles (helper, friend) through participation and others used the shelter to stay free from stress and hassle. Moving on towards independent living isn’t an immediate goal for the latter, although many consumers in the end started working towards independent living.Most of the respondents state that their live has improved when it comes to mental health, living situations and social aspects, although some respondents report issues with finances and social contacts. DiscussionThere are two main limitations to our research. Firstly, consumers who only stayed for a short while, consumers who stayed in the shelter more than a few years ago and consumer who left the program are underrepresented in our data. Secondly, a lot of the respondents deflected questions about their personal recovery (self-worth, trust, self-efficacy), because this ‘was not relevant for them’. Anecdotal evidence from peer workers and social workers and some of the respondents suggests that staying in the self-managed shelter contributes to personal recovery of consumers as well, but more research is necessary to determine how and to what extend consumers work on their personal recovery within self-managed programs.
