Conclusions: Participating as Power? The Possibilities and Politics of Participation

Céline Cantat (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

This chapter reflects on the possibilities and challenges of using participatory research methods in the production of critical knowledge about migration – including visual knowledge. It first reflects on dominant regimes of representations and on the consolidation of a visual knowledge-power nexus around migration. Against this background, it discusses whether and under which conditions participatory approaches may enable the production of counter-hegemonic accounts and knowledges, with a particular focus on the way in which participation can challenge the displacement of violence that underpins dominant and exclusionary representations of migration. After thinking through processes of collective knowledge distribution and exploring the possibilities opened up by participatory dissemination practices, the chapter concludes with a call for further theorisation of participation and for the recognition of its relational and contested nature.

Domains: Political science

Céline Cantat. Conclusions: Participating as Power? The Possibilities and Politics of Participation. Visual Methodology in Migration Studies, Springer International Publishing, pp.237-250, 2021, IMISCOE Research Series, 9783030676070. ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-67608-7_13⟩. ⟨hal-04107425⟩