The Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG) committee warmly invites you to our online RGS-IBG PyGyRG AGM and Discussant Event.
11am to 1pm (BST) on 2nd September 2020.
To attend, please register in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvceGurjMrHtU3oqFnRETSZC6RcLUPpByN
After registering, you will receive a Zoom link for joining the meeting. Each link to attend the Zoom meeting is personalised, so for security please do not share your meeting link (but do encourage others to register too with the above link!). You can view more information about our AGM, including an agenda, at the bottom of this page.
Post-AGM Participatory Discussant Event
After the AGM, we are hosting an interactive participatory discussant. This will focus on questioning what experiences before, during, or after ‘lockdown’ can inform how we do participation, action, and research for change? Through this discussion, we will cultivate critical reflections on participatory research in light of Covid-19 and beyond, as a collective seeking to challenge inequalities, oppression, and injustice.
What we want from you – sign up to the AGM & attend. The event will take place straight after the AGM and last 1.5 hours.
Get involved – we hope to make this event participatory, and all can be involved on the day. Ahead of the event, we would love some folk to send us short (3 – 5 minute) videos for presentation at the event; these could be talking presentations, clips from fieldwork, soundscapes, etc. – any and all submissions are welcomed. You could pose problems you have encountered, showcase your current works, highlight an area you wish to address… anything you wish to submit for discussion during the event! These early contributions are not a condition of attendance, but they are an opportunity to lead and shape discussion.
A temporal program exists (see below) to inform the event, however this is subject to change depending on participation and desires on the day. Feel free to address some of the areas outlined or extend to other areas of participatory interest. Email submissions to: pygyrgeo@gmail.com
Programme:
Lessons and reflections 1: doing participation remotely
Doing digital participation:
- ‘Be the change you want to see’ – how to do remote interaction in ways that are participatory
- Platforms, tools and technicalities – what works?
- Digitising classics (i.e. ice breakers, diagramming, mapping, focus groups, art and performance etc.), entirely new digital possibilities.
- From digital participation to digital (and or more-than-digital) action – how?
- Critical analysis of digitised participation.
- How does digitisation impact the spaces/spatiality, relationality, and/or power-relations of participation?
- What or who is lost or gained, centred or marginalised as a consequence of digitised participation?
- What ethical issues need to be considered (‘institutional ethics’, and more broadly).
- How to make digital technology inclusive rather than productive of further marginalisation?
- Beyond the ‘zoomification’ of participatory research – what lower tech/bandwidth and/or non-digital methods work across time-space?
Lessons and reflections 2: working for justice
- How does the current moment (inequalities exposed by Covid 19 and BLM) inform our projects to facilitate justice and inclusion?
- How might we work to facilitate just recoveries from the pandemic and longer term injustices like racism?
AGM Information
The agenda for our brief AGM is included below. We welcome new committee members and expressions of interest to stand as Treasurer. This is a friendly group aligned towards developing and promoting participatory geographies. Being a committee member is a great opportunity to get more involved with the RGS-IBG and the wider geographical discipline.
If you are interested in standing for election to the committee at the AGM please send an expression of interest to PyGyRG Secretary Stephanie at stephanie.denning@coventry.ac.uk We invite interest from anyone with an interest in participatory geographies at any career stage, affiliated or independent scholars. We have positions relating to Ordinary Members but also encourage anyone with specific skills (organisational, social media, networking, mentoring, teaching) to propose their own position.
PyGyRG AGM Agenda 202
1. Welcome
2. Approval of minutes from 2019 AGM
3. Summary of activities during the last year
4. Financial report
5. Approval of PyGyRG constitution
6. Election of committee members
7. Event ideas for 2020-2021 – PGR/ECR event on participatory methods
8. AOB
We look forward to *virtually* seeing you on the 2nd September.