Participatory Cultures Lab

The Participatory Cultures Lab (PCL) was established in 2010 by Dr. Claudia Mitchell in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Funded as a CFI unit, the PCL is organized around the study and use of visual and participatory approaches to research and social action, and involves the work of collaborators and research students engaged in the study of participatory research. Central to the interests of the team, this work includes the study and use of such visual tools as digital storytelling, photovoice, participatory video, participatory archiving, cellphilms, objects and things, collage, games, and other arts-based approaches in the process of collecting, analyzing, and working with research data. It also links to memory work, self-study and to various autoethnographic approaches to research. The work links to issues of social justice, focusing on such areas as youth sexuality and HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, food security, and poverty alleviation.