Documenting a Movement Ecosystem

Oral historians working to document organizations and social movements engaged in the struggle for social justice may benefit from incorporating elements from the disciplines of community organizing and participatory action research (PAR) in their project design. Identifying and implementing strategies that subvert societal power hierarchies enhances the production of knowledge in all phases of an oral history project.Oral history, PAR, and community organizing are complex disciplines embodying a range of approaches and allowing for creativity. It is interdisciplinary work that is unapologetically rooted in relationships and respect for the capacity of each person to analyze and historicize the conditions of our lives. It is possible to identify common threads across these three disciplines without flattening or obscuring the ways they differ.Participatory oral history research is a framework that incorporates the shared values of oral history, PAR, and community organizing. This article offers the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project as a case study in participatory oral history research with the hope of contributing to ongoing discourse in our field around the ways in which oral history research may be a tool in the struggle for social justice. Given the necessity to learn from our past in order to understand our present so that we may build a future rooted in collective liberation, the time for these conversations is urgent.

Citizen journalism · Movement (music · Oral history · Participant observation · Participatory action research · Qualitative research · Community and Sustainable Development · Homelessness and Social Issues · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis