Researching ourselves – a community based participatory research approach to reproducing the Japanese residents of Grand Forks commemorative photo album, 1942–46

Bibliographic Data

ID17754451
AuthorsLisa Kimiko Domae (North Island College, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-21
Publication date2026-04-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Ethnicity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-1369 • E-ISSN: 1469-2953
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14631369.2026.2661344
OpenAlexW7155202129
LanguageEN
References cited20

Community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches provide guidance to academic researchers seeking to even the balance of power between them and the communities they study. Drawing upon the author’s experiences as a Japanese Canadian scholar involved in an international project to reproduce and research the Grand Forks Photo Book, this article argues that CBPR is most effective when practitioners acknowledge that like the subjects of their research, they too belong to communities with associated values, norms and points-of-view. Using critical self-reflection, the author discusses how researchers from Japan and Canada differed in their approach to the people and photos at the centre of the study leading to conflict during the process. Resolution was found when the academic researchers identified their own culturally based communities of practice and recognized community-based participants as equal researchers. This explication of those experiences can therefore provide insights aimed at widening and improving CBPR practices.

Citizen journalism · Community-based participatory research · Participatory action research · Photovoice · Qualitative research · Visual methods · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Photography and Visual Culture

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