ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how participatory video (PV)—still a young methodology for research, but a tool widely used in the development field for community empowerment—may enable young people living in urban and, apparently, developed scenarios, to articulate their own perceptions on decisions that directly affect their daily realities in overcoming structural barriers. PV aligns with the core ideas of the capability approach of aspirations, participation and democracy inasmuch as it implies carefully negotiated relationships that have the potential to instigate transformation, not only at an individual level, but also within a group and in the wider society, including changes in policy orientations. To highlight these effects, this chapter reflects on experiences from a PV project undertaken with a group of young people in Quart de Poblet, Spain. Young people comprise one of the groups most affected by the financial crisis; thus, this chapter shows how the joint voices of the youth can be presented powerfully through PV and translated into more realistic recommendations for youth policy. Analysing the PV process as well as the videos generated by the young people, and providing an intersectional analysis where gender and level of education are variables to take into account, this chapter concludes that thanks to the use of engaging methodologies such as video, these variables can become secondary and a group dynamic among the entire group is able to emerge. In fact, the cooperative work dynamics intrinsic to the use of PV help each group to develop their own theme such as participation, quality employment or education. These are seen as demands to be taken into account when designing and implementing future youth policies. The analysis is made based on the work of a European Commission funded FP7 project SocIEtY “Social Innovation, Empowering the Young for the Common Good”.
Keywords: Participatory video, aspirations, youth policy development, Spain, voice
