The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

called this “activist research” and at times, “participatory research.” (Frampton, Kinsman,
Thompson and Tilleczek, 2006, and Rodriguez, 2001, respectively) Similarly, this
inquiry is concerned with contributing to both the amelioration of independent
documentary communities and to the democracy project by mapping grassroots practices
that create spaces conducive to access and inclusiveness, participation, and
responsiveness. (Barney, 2005, p.10) Rodriguez describes this sort of work as “…a
theoretical analysis that attempts to capture the essence of alternative media and/or to
explain the importance of these media as processes of communication and democracy.”
(2001, p.11) What makes this kind of analysis more radical than perhaps a standard,
Marxist political economy investigation of media practices is that I position myself,
reflexively, at various points throughout the text. In the following chapter (Chapter II) I
provide a thorough examination of some of these intersecting lines of thinking with a
theoretical framework and literature review.
In one section of the book Sociology for Changing the World entitled Research
as Disruption, the editors celebrate a strategy in academic research for positioning the
self within the area of research. They write: “…when we’re doing activist research one
should ‘Start where you’re at. Map your way outward. Watch the interconnections
proliferate.” (G. Smith quoted in Frampton et al., 2006, p.97) The writers then use
metaphor to describe the advantages of being inside the belly of the beast and seeing
“their squishy insides, their ineptitudes and the causes of their indigestion.” (Frampton et
al., Ibid) The flamboyant language is meant to inspire academics to position themselves
in their work, should they occupy a position, which I indeed do, informed in part from
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