Transforming images: participatory video and social change in Fiji

This thesis presents an ethnographic case study of a participatory video (PV) workshop which the author conducted with rural women in Fiji and discusses its implications for dialogue and community building in a post-conflict society. Participatory video is explored as a " lived experience" through ways in which community producers integrate local knowledge, networks, norms and practices in the production process and programme content. Social networks and community relations are discussed within a broader framework of social capital. Participatory action research (PAR) was the primary methodology employed for the facilitation of the video workshop while visual ethnography, in the form of video documentation, was used for collecting and interpreting the findings. The enthnographic footage shot by the researcher has been edited into an 82-minute audio-visual presentation and submitted as the findings chapter on DVD. A six-minute promotional video, and 30-minute members' video produced by the women have been presented on two other DVDs as outcomes of the research project and are owned by the community. This study found that rural women in Fiji used social capital - their relationships and social networks - as a key element in video production to highlight community needs and linkages. Active engagement in PV production allowed rural women to access bonding networks as well extend bridging ties with other communities by visiting each other's homes and exchanging information, thus widening their social relations and their understanding of the wider community in which they reside. Through their content creation the women reflected the interconnections and community relations between various ethnic groups occurring at the subaltern level in Fiji.