Co-creating knowledge on bicycling: a decolonial feminist participatory action research approach to arts-based methods

• Published in: Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health exercise and health, 2024-01, Vol.16 (1), p.16-34
• Main Authors: Nachman, Jessica R., Hayhurst, Lyndsay M. C., McSweeney, Mitchell, Wang, Rachel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: arts-based methods; Bicycles; co-creating knowledge; decolonial feminist theory; Feminism; Oppression; participatory action research; Participatory research
• ISSN: 2159-676X; 2159-6778
• DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2023.2243955

The colonising tendencies of Western research - in which Indigenous and racialised bodies are deliberately misrepresented - has justified the exploitation and violence towards these communities. Within the field of qualitative sport research, there is a need for research methodologies that relinquish power from the researcher, into the hands of the research communities . This paper aims to demonstrate the utility of a decolonial feminist participatory action research (PAR) approach to arts-based methods for sport research through an exploration of fieldwork with a Toronto-based bicycle organisation. A combination of data collection methods were used, including: 1) arts-based methods; 2) semi-structured interviews; and 3) reflexive journal notes. The results of this project demonstrated that a decolonial feminist PAR approach to arts-based methods can: 1) illuminate the non-human actors within art and bicycling; 2) help research colleagues critique systems of oppression; and 3) facilitate research colleague agency. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the importance of co-creating knowledge within sport scholarship to illuminate the diverse knowledges of those vulnerable to systemic oppression and erasure. This is a novel direction for challenging power relations within sport research and within sociological research more broadly.