Intergenerational digital storytelling: a sustainable community initiative with inner-city residents

Abstract

A B S T R A C TDigital storytelling (DST) is being increasingly used in a range of contexts to exploit current technological capabilities of capturing and reproducing community stories. Methods of storytelling collection are typically realized over short time frames of days or weeks, and appropriate visual images and interview data produce multimodal outputs. A particular stream of work has developed in community-based DST around intergenerational storytelling in environments where student researchers may work with older storytellers in culturally diverse urban settings. DST also emphasizes the participatory nature of the process and outcomes with respect to enabling untold but significant stories to emerge, and technical and storytelling skills to be transferred to participants through the process. This article addresses the particular concerns of relationship building and the pedagogical aims of training students to carry out research using this participatory DST research approach where intergenerational and cultural issues are foregrounded. In the conclusion, the author reflects on this particular focus and the shortcomings of the project with regard to the substantive participatory and democratic benefits exemplified by other projects; he also provides evidence of the other achievements of this project in an intergenerational project supported by an inner-city health organization in Melbourne, Australia.

A narrative review of digital storytelling for social work practice

“…Among the DST studies reviewed by Botfield et al (2017), de Jager et al (2017), and De Vecchi et al (2016, quite a number of them have illustrated the use of the Internet to facilitate an intervention process. For example, the Internet was used for gathering information to support production of stories (Kent, 2016;Nicole & Naomi, 2017), sharing resources among production teammates (Lally & Sclater, 2012;Paiewonsky, 2011), downloading media materials (e.g., images, sounds, texts) to support production (Emert, 2014;Mnisi, 2015), distributing final productions and collecting feedback (Davis, 2011;O'Mara & Harris, 2016).…”

New directions in research on local memory websites

“…We will discuss some examples of incidental occurrences of the term to illustrate how a more explicit connection to one of the three levels of analysis could be made. In the literature, the term empowerment is sometimes used in the context of what we have called direct benefits for individual participants -the micro level -for example, the development of technical skills (Davis, 2011;Ferri, Mangiatordi & Pozzali, 2010;Shewbridge, 2007;Watkins & Tacchi, 2008) or the growth of self-efficacy (Davis, 2011;Thumim, 2009). At other times it relates to meso-level concepts such as inclusion by increasing the online presence of a certain underrepresented group in the cultural identity of a city (Lenstra & Alkalimat, 2012;Vos & Ketelaar, 2007).…”

“…Secondly, as a practice of cultural citizenship, people use local memory websites to creatively express their experiences of and opinions about the local culture. Alongside commercial popular culture and institutional discourses, these environments form a growing independent public sphere where meaning is negotiated (Burgess, 2006;Davis, 2011;Freidus & Hlubinka, 2002;Lenstra & Alkalimat, 2012;Shewbridge, 2007) and cultural value is judged by ordinary people. A final example on the macro level with respect to community capacity, is that community members share memories and experiences in new online social networks, creating their own discourse in favour of future collective action (Carpentier, 2009;Copeland & Miskelly, 2010;Foth et al, 2008;Thumim, 2009;Watkins & Tacchi, 2008).…”

“…A Melbourne (Davis, 2011) B Memory Line (Ferri et al, 2010 (Ringas et al, 2011) appendix a: The key articles describing other case studies with local memory websites.…”

Raising Awareness and Addressing Elder Abuse in the LGBT Community: An Intergenerational Arts Project

“…They thus welcomed this opportunity to learn and apply new skills in a supportive environment. Davis (2011) has described this kind of work as a productive intergenerational intersection that exploits "a genre of vernacular creativity familiar to younger participants and [provides] the opportunity for an older generation to contribute expertise" (p. 528).…”