Working with the Preservative Party, a diverse group of 14 to 24-year-old volunteer youth curators at Leeds City Museum, we will produce a podcast ‘Whose power?’ to explore and evidence the possibilities and benefits of using the co-production of a podcast as a participatory method.
As young people who want to speak up, but who are restricted by their social, educational, economic and personal experiences (most of the group as now constituted are neurodivergent and/or live with mental health challenges) the podcast has shown itself to be a powerful tool for effective participation.
Having experimented with this method and started to explore together its significant and previously unforeseen benefits, series 2 of the podcast ‘Whose power?’ will enable us to explore, evaluate and communicate the impact of this innovative method on the development of the group’s participatory research skills and their ability to communicate why podcasting specifically enables them to be key voices in advocating for more public and community involvement in museums and collections’ interpretation.
Using a case study approach, we are seeking to develop our knowledge of the podcast as both method and effective output to examine and articulate the complexity and benefits of participatory methods.
This project is funded by the 2024–2025 Participatory Research Fund.