Participatory Video by Shirley White, Chapter 5 (actually an essay by Stephen Crocker)
It is popularly thought that digital media destroys sense of place since distances are meaningless leading to some grotesque monoculture of capitalism at the scale of mass society.
The Fogo Process was born from an initiative called the Challenge for Change and organized by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in the late 1960's. Initial goal was to create documentaries with local video in underdeveloped regions of Canada as messages for politicians and decisionmakers who are not taking their opinions into account. "The Fogo Process provides real evidence of how peoplle who have been marginalized the economicand political structure of the world system can renew and empower their local communities and transform conditions of uneven development." p. 123
Prior to the Fogo Process was the Lumerire brothers, who invented movies, popularized their cinematograph in the 1980's - presenting film from everyday life in other parts of the woorld. Similar things were being done in the streets of Russia, and live activist scripts were filmed by filmakers like Roberto Rossellini. In the 1940's we have the British Colonial Film Unit producing films to show African colonists was England was like and attract Europeans to colonies. (Mr English at Home, and Southern Rhodesia: Is This your Country).
The first attempt by the NFB in 1966 was The Things I Cannot Change - a documentary on the social problem of poverty and the family it was based on was aversely affected by the production due to ridicule and embarrasment. Colin Low is the producer and director for the Fogo team. He wanted to put the filmaking tools into the hands of the locals and teach young ones how to be filmakers. Donald Snowden was a community development worker directing the Extension Service of th MUN. This project was incited by an article on poverty reduced to economic figures. What about the poverty of information and organization? Fogo was chosen because it had several small communities but very similar yet disconnected. 5000 lived in 10 communites with religious divides. No common voice nor communication chanell with government (p. 125).
First step was to go through a local community worker to identify some social problems and issues with the people. Much stress is placed on who you connect with to enter into the trust of the community. Suggested ideal is a local community organizer who often will look like he is the director of the set. Result was 28 short films on Fogo. Low moved away from horizontal filmmaking to try this vertical means of capturing different opinions rather than aggregating them. The people were shown the videos first and feedback elicited became the precedent for community feedback loop. A bigger loop closed by taking the video to the MUN and eventually government. A film was then made of the Fishing Ministries' response and returned.
There is much more information in this chapter that discusses a bit more on process vs product, as well as the continued need for improved development communications.
Reflection
I've been waiting impatiently to come across a more detailed account of the Fogo Process, and here it is. The best thing I learned was that vertical documentaries are real.
I would like to know how long the various feedback loops take to occur, and who filmed and edited/compiled the response from the government? Was it the government officials, or the NFB/MUN project team?
The history is interesting but the second part of the chapter is dedicated to the process that has become famously known as the Fogo Process. It has been applied by various different groups including Martha Stewart's initiative for Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which produced some 400 films on their situation. It is interesting to think about how video seems to have been born into the development arena as a participatory tool, rather than evolving into one.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Empowerment: the Politics of Alternative Development
Friedman, David. "Empowerment: the Politics of Alternative Development." Blackwell Publishers: Cambridge, 1992.
In the first chapter, Friedman discusses how half the population became redundant in our current economic capitalist model. He claims that the poor are excluded from economically and politically participating alongside their richer counterparts due to capitalism's "global reach, technological innovations, centralization in giant corporations and financial institutions" (P 14). The book is meant to provide the framework for practicing alternative development, whose objective is to "humanize a system which has shut [the people] out, and to accomplish this through forms of everyday resistance and political struggle that insist on the rights of the excluded population as human beings, citizens, and persons intent on realizing their loving and creative powers within" (P13). The common doctrines of alternative development (AD) are to avoid the state (possibly entirely opposing it), trusting that a community is cohesive and collectively making right decisions, and political action should be avoided. Friedman argues that all three of these bases are incorrect: development must take place on bigger levels than just the local scale, communities are not always gemeinschaftlich (together and communal), and that political intervention is necessary in a age where common resources are controlled by the state (P7-8).
In the second chapter, Friedman discusses how the massive redundancy of the impoverished came about, pushing around some numbers and trying to make a point. After a few pages, it is lost. However, he does manage to rattle off a few reasons why modern capitalism is adverse to the modern peasant. Mainly that they spend capital for unproductive public expenditures such as housing, education, and health reasons. Additionally, they inhabit desirable land necessary for industrial growth, demand wages, and are a dangerous class that the government needs to keep their eyes on (P14). The poor are economically excluded from participation and Friedman says that, "To be economically excluded is, for all practical purposes, to be politically excluded." The poor, however, figh against this exclusion through acts of survival that include daily resistance in the form of "individual enterprise in the informal economy, protests, and community-centered initiatives." Although only mentioned briefly, he believes that "all initiatives require the cooperation of others; most require some form of outside help from students, priests, and professionals who may also provide..." (P21-22).
Some examples of 'daily resistance' include talleres, which is a simliar to a workshop where skills are swapped in order to move towards a collective enterprise. Talleres also provide a socializing aspect for marginalized groups such as women. So this economic model also provides a platform for social support. Other examples include organized protest movements as well as the bustling informal sector full of entrepreneurs. While "modernization emphasizes materialism, objective science, individualism, and liberal democracy, ... the barrio emphasizes intersubjective solidarity based on trust, reality testing based on subjective experience and intersubjective validation, anthropology of personhood, and a political order based on the strong talk of "direct democracy" (P ).
Then, what follows, may be the most amazing diagram which describes four actors in 'lifespace.' These include the state, civil society, corporations, and politics. State and corporate on the vertical axis while politics and civil society are on the horizontal. Friedman argues that the horizontal axis is weakened by the reinforcements created by the vertical axis, as seen primarily in the South. Although these actors cannot be kept from interacting with one another, the spaces of their overlapped have been named as well in an attempt to define the structure which dictates poverty and social inclusion.
Reflections
I am excited to get to the part of this book that explains how to take the entire system of global capitalism and turn it on its head... practically. Friedman's discussion of the history of how the haves and have-nots came to be is a useful and succinct (although somewhat biased) summary. This is the second book which considers power structures as obstacles to community development. I think he makes important distinctions between what AD has traditionally emphasized in order to redirect the focus onto working with governments through political intervention. This, as he argues, is the only way to really divvy up natural resources (thus wealth) equally.
As seen during my trip to Peru, there is a definite need for cooperation amongst the government as well as NGOs in order to make the sweeping changes desired in the Southern regions. However under governments that are corrupt, power-hungry, or apathetic, change is impossible unless the people demand their rights as citizens. A system of accountability and transparency needs to be in place so the people can guide the reconstruction in affected areas. I think that Participatory Video is one way to fill the gaps in feedback, monitoring, and evaluation that are currently ignored. If economic exclusion truly does imply political exclusion, this explains why the poor are stuck in their vicious cycle of poverty. We witnessed many of the same programs of "daily survival" such as the olla comunal and talleres being practiced in Peru. If PV can base its roots in the barrio's point of view, keeping its practices full of trust, subjectivity, and opening up the communication lines for more "direct democracy," it may be a useful tool to create and/or demand dialog between the community and its surroundings.
Finally, the amazing diagram implicitly suggests that strengthening the civil society as well as community participation in politics can also weaken the power constructs of the state and corporation. By siphoning power from authority and decentralizing it, truly participatory democracy can be built up.
On a side note, Friedman also addresses the idea of class within communities which we also encountered during our trip. There were many NGO workers who were from Peru but were considered better educated or just came from wealthier backgrounds.
In the first chapter, Friedman discusses how half the population became redundant in our current economic capitalist model. He claims that the poor are excluded from economically and politically participating alongside their richer counterparts due to capitalism's "global reach, technological innovations, centralization in giant corporations and financial institutions" (P 14). The book is meant to provide the framework for practicing alternative development, whose objective is to "humanize a system which has shut [the people] out, and to accomplish this through forms of everyday resistance and political struggle that insist on the rights of the excluded population as human beings, citizens, and persons intent on realizing their loving and creative powers within" (P13). The common doctrines of alternative development (AD) are to avoid the state (possibly entirely opposing it), trusting that a community is cohesive and collectively making right decisions, and political action should be avoided. Friedman argues that all three of these bases are incorrect: development must take place on bigger levels than just the local scale, communities are not always gemeinschaftlich (together and communal), and that political intervention is necessary in a age where common resources are controlled by the state (P7-8).
In the second chapter, Friedman discusses how the massive redundancy of the impoverished came about, pushing around some numbers and trying to make a point. After a few pages, it is lost. However, he does manage to rattle off a few reasons why modern capitalism is adverse to the modern peasant. Mainly that they spend capital for unproductive public expenditures such as housing, education, and health reasons. Additionally, they inhabit desirable land necessary for industrial growth, demand wages, and are a dangerous class that the government needs to keep their eyes on (P14). The poor are economically excluded from participation and Friedman says that, "To be economically excluded is, for all practical purposes, to be politically excluded." The poor, however, figh against this exclusion through acts of survival that include daily resistance in the form of "individual enterprise in the informal economy, protests, and community-centered initiatives." Although only mentioned briefly, he believes that "all initiatives require the cooperation of others; most require some form of outside help from students, priests, and professionals who may also provide..." (P21-22).
Some examples of 'daily resistance' include talleres, which is a simliar to a workshop where skills are swapped in order to move towards a collective enterprise. Talleres also provide a socializing aspect for marginalized groups such as women. So this economic model also provides a platform for social support. Other examples include organized protest movements as well as the bustling informal sector full of entrepreneurs. While "modernization emphasizes materialism, objective science, individualism, and liberal democracy, ... the barrio emphasizes intersubjective solidarity based on trust, reality testing based on subjective experience and intersubjective validation, anthropology of personhood, and a political order based on the strong talk of "direct democracy" (P ).
Then, what follows, may be the most amazing diagram which describes four actors in 'lifespace.' These include the state, civil society, corporations, and politics. State and corporate on the vertical axis while politics and civil society are on the horizontal. Friedman argues that the horizontal axis is weakened by the reinforcements created by the vertical axis, as seen primarily in the South. Although these actors cannot be kept from interacting with one another, the spaces of their overlapped have been named as well in an attempt to define the structure which dictates poverty and social inclusion.
Reflections
I am excited to get to the part of this book that explains how to take the entire system of global capitalism and turn it on its head... practically. Friedman's discussion of the history of how the haves and have-nots came to be is a useful and succinct (although somewhat biased) summary. This is the second book which considers power structures as obstacles to community development. I think he makes important distinctions between what AD has traditionally emphasized in order to redirect the focus onto working with governments through political intervention. This, as he argues, is the only way to really divvy up natural resources (thus wealth) equally.
As seen during my trip to Peru, there is a definite need for cooperation amongst the government as well as NGOs in order to make the sweeping changes desired in the Southern regions. However under governments that are corrupt, power-hungry, or apathetic, change is impossible unless the people demand their rights as citizens. A system of accountability and transparency needs to be in place so the people can guide the reconstruction in affected areas. I think that Participatory Video is one way to fill the gaps in feedback, monitoring, and evaluation that are currently ignored. If economic exclusion truly does imply political exclusion, this explains why the poor are stuck in their vicious cycle of poverty. We witnessed many of the same programs of "daily survival" such as the olla comunal and talleres being practiced in Peru. If PV can base its roots in the barrio's point of view, keeping its practices full of trust, subjectivity, and opening up the communication lines for more "direct democracy," it may be a useful tool to create and/or demand dialog between the community and its surroundings.
Finally, the amazing diagram implicitly suggests that strengthening the civil society as well as community participation in politics can also weaken the power constructs of the state and corporation. By siphoning power from authority and decentralizing it, truly participatory democracy can be built up.
On a side note, Friedman also addresses the idea of class within communities which we also encountered during our trip. There were many NGO workers who were from Peru but were considered better educated or just came from wealthier backgrounds.
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