The Promise of Arts-Based and Creative Participatory Models in Fostering Intersectional Equity

This paper presents the findings from a scoping review as part of the Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded (INSPIRE) project that explores the use of arts-based and creative approaches in participatory processes to promote inclusive policymaking and intersectional equity. Our analyses of 44 papers highlight how researchers and practitioners have used arts-based and creative methods such as Photovoice, participatory filmmaking, theatre, and storytelling to foster equitable participatory spaces. The review reveals that arts-based methods are particularly effective at engaging marginalised groups through three key mechanisms. Firstly, they provide alternative forms of expression that transcend traditional verbal deliberation, enabling participants to communicate complex experiences through visual, performative and narrative approaches. Secondly, through embodied and playful practices, these methods help disrupt conventional power dynamics and create more inclusive environments for participation. Thirdly, they support the creation of collective knowledge that promotes epistemic justice. Despite the potential of arts-based and creative methods, our analysis highlights important challenges. Arts-based methods can inadvertently create new forms of exclusion through technical and emotional demands. The pressure to share personal stories can place a significant emotional burden on marginalised participants and may expose vulnerabilities. Furthermore, transferring ownership of processes and outcomes to participants presents significant challenges, with institutional control often limiting the dissemination of participants' work. Understanding intersectionality as a methodological and analytical approach rooted in Black feminism, Indigenous feminism, queer and postcolonial theory, our review was particularly interested in how intersecting identities may shape the ways marginalised communities engage in participatory practices. We approach intersectionality as a dynamic lens that illuminates how different systems of oppression intersect to produce specific forms of marginalisation and exclusion in participatory spaces. Many studies from the scoping review worked with participants holding multiple identities historically marginalised in policymaking - for instance, young LGBTQ+ people, immigrant women, or Indigenous women affected by poverty. While explicit engagement with intersectionality varied across studies, we found limited analysis of how different forms of marginalisation intersect to shape participatory experiences. Our findings suggest that successful implementation of arts-based methods requires careful attention to power dynamics in process design, support systems to address emotional labour, clear pathways to policy influence, and flexibility to adapt methods to different cultural and social contexts. The paper provides empirical evidence of how arts-based and creative methods are employed as various forms of resistance, and to advance social justice aims. This paper highlights a key finding: arts-based methods are widely employed in participatory research to co-create knowledge and challenge power structures. This finding is instrumental for those seeking to understand how to study activism and advocacy ‘intersectionally’. By examining how arts-based and creative methods have enhanced inclusion in participatory research contexts, we argue that arts-based and creative methods, when thoughtfully designed with intersectional awareness, could contribute to intersectional equity. However, realising this potential requires a deeper engagement with how different forms of exclusion interact and affect participation.