Paper on participatory video & local innovation Bangladesh

[Dorine Ruter [ETC Foundation]]

Dear all,

 

Please find via this link an interesting paper on various types of participatory video and their usefulness to a local seed innovation system in Bangladesh. The paper was presented at the Innovation Asia and Pacific Symposium in Nepal (May 2009).

 

More information including an abstract can be found below.

The following link gives you the PDF directly (66,3 KB download)

 

http://innovation-asia-pacific.net/home/media/Chowdhury-et-al-Scripted-and-scriptless-PV-for-web.pdf

 

Other information about the symposium, including a wide range of interesting appers, can be found at http://innovation-asia-pacific.net.

 

Best wishes,

Dorine

 

Dorine Rüter
ETC Foundation

 

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Assessment of scripted and scriptless participatory video on usefulness for

local seed innovation system in Bangladesh

 

Ataharul Huq Chowdhury and Michael Hauser

University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Working Group

Knowledge Systems and Innovations, Gregor Mendel Strasse 33, A-1180 Vienna, Austria (atah...@yahoo.com)

 

 

Abstract

 

Recent experiences in participatory video (PV) raised the question of how to best use it for facilitating

a self-sustaining local seed innovation system with farmers. A major assumption was that the

presence or absence of a script (pre-structured message) may be a major factor determining the

potential of PV for stimulating seed innovation. Embedded in a mini-process of participatory action

research, two styles of video production were tested and assessed together with farming communities

in Bogra District, Bangladesh. Under the script-based style, the video was developed using a script,

and the camcorder was kept under control of the professionals. Under the scriptless style, an open

structure was adopted and the camcorder was handed over to the farmers. Both styles were

assessed with farmers and process facilitators through three stakeholder workshops using a

combined Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Strengths, Weaknesses. Opportunities, Threats

(SWOT) analysis. In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with the members of the video

facilitation team and participant farmers. The process of video facilitation (i.e. the role of the

outsiders) differs between the two styles whereby, using a script, the issue of “goal orientation” (i.e.

how to show a specific message better) seems to be more dominant. Under the scriptless style, the

process seems to be more inclusive, but random and hence less goal-oriented. Because of its

random structure, it can be used as a monitoring tool to capture most significant change in local seed

innovation development. Moreover, potentials for stimulating self-sustaining seed innovation at village

level appeared to be higher under scriptless PV processes. Scripted video is useful as a capacitybuilding

tool and for disseminating sustainable technologies or local knowledge across geographical

scales. However, scriptless video may be difficult to institutionalize in the context of Bangladesh.

Also, the process and outcome (the film) underlying scriptless videos are of limited geographical

relevance and may not be replicable elsewhere. This research has raised several critiques about the

usefulness of the two styles of PV, which can be seen as an entry point to investigate their

potentialities within a specific seed-development process.

 

Keywords: participatory video, local seed innovation system, innovation process, Bangladesh, South

Asia