Ongoing Research

The VideoVoice Collective conducted a systematic literature search using the keywords “community-based participatory research,” “participatory video” or “participatory film,” and “photovoice”. We included the following databases in my search: H.W. Wilson (including Applied Science FT, Art FT, Book Review FT, Education FT, General Science FT, Humanities and Social Sciences Retro, Humanities FT, and Social Science FT), Proquest (including Scholarly Journals, Dissertations, Magazines, Trade Publications, and Newspapers), PubMed/Medline, Web of Knowledge (Web of Science), and Ovid (Social Work Abstracts).

We found 279 articles on “community-based participatory research.” Article publication dates ranged from 1997-2006, with the bulk of articles appearing from 2003-2006. Publications appeared in 111 different journals, edited books, and online sources.

We found 74 articles on “photovoice.”  Exactly mirroring CBPR, article publication dates ranged from 1997 to 2006, with the bulk of articles appearing from 2003-2006.  Publications appeared in 46 different journals, edited books, and online sources.

Lastly, we found one article on “participatory film” or “participatory video.”  This one article, titled “A Bridge Between Communities: Video-making using principles of community-based participatory research” and was published in a peer-reviewed public health journal. (Chavez et al., 2004) Dismayed by this number, we extended the search for literature on participatory video to include a Google search, and consequently found an additional 28 articles. This finding supports the observation that participatory video efforts have been mostly non-academic and generally take place outside of the United States.