Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a social science approach that challenges traditional modes of knowledge production by emphasising horizontal processes in research participation (Baum et al., 2006; Chevalier & Buckles, 2019). Grounded in the work of Paulo Freire (1970), this approach emphasises a participatory research process where community members are included as co-researchers (Lenette, 2022), aiming to solve problems (Chambers, 1997; Erdem et al., 2019) and bring change through action (Baum et al., 2006).
This study employs PAR methodology in a case study located in Arusha (Tanzania) in order to bring change to the way volunteer tourism projects are portrayed and promoted on social media. Specifically, the study addresses the exclusion of the receiving aid community from the dissemination of the volunteering project through the Instagram account managed by the volunteers. Therefore, the perspectives from the local community were not being taken into account, reproducing the notion of the voiceless subaltern (Spivak, 1988) and perpetuating colonial power dynamics by marginalising local voices in the dissemination of voluntourism phenomenon. A participatory methodological process was adopted, integrating two local community members into the research design and data analysis. Subsequently, a focus group was conducted (1) to explore the local community perspectives on the use of social media to promote the volunteer project and (2) to determine the narratives and images they sought to employ in representing their story.
Based on the focus group responses, a participatory audio-visual process was implemented, whereby community members curated photographs for the project’s Instagram account and collaboratively developed the accompanying narrative. This process contributed to a more equitable and inclusive knowledge production process, particularly in a postcolonial context. Additionally, this approach required the researcher to engage in a process of self-reflexivity, navigating her positionality as insider and outsider, as being both volunteer and researcher.
