(En)tangled Ethics and Relational Mobilities: Reflections on Decolonial Feminist Digital Participatory Action Research

This paper explores the ethical entanglements and tensions that arise when using a decolonial feminist approach to digital participatory action research (DPAR) within the context of bicycling, mobilit(ies), and gender justice in rural Nicaragua. Grounded in a reflexive feminist ethics of care and relational mobilities, I reflect on a collaborative DPAR project with co-researchers that aimed to address the intertwined issues of mobility justice, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and climate change. Through digital methods – such as photovoice and participatory GIS mapping using GoPro cameras – co-researchers mapped specific community spaces marked by SGBV and environmental precarity, revealing the layered dynamics of gendered, racialized and ecological injustice that shaped their everyday mobilities. Drawing on these experiences, I offer critical reflections on the possibilities and tensions of decolonial feminist DPAR, including (1) the necessity of a feminist reflexive ethics of care; and (2) the ethical entanglements involved in using technological interventions that may inadvertently reproduce structural inequalities. While digital technologies may pry open opportunities for collective storytelling and community advocacy, I contend that their use must be guided by ongoing ethical considerations to ensure that relational mobilities and accountabilities – and the voices of co-researchers in DPAR projects – remain central.