‘Action Research’ expressed in a zine

Parkhill-ZINE-Participatory-action-research-with-an-Autistic-Book-Club
by Cynthia M. Parkhill

As part of my studies toward “Action Research” in libraries, I worked on constructing a zine that explored the concept of “Participatory” action research and applied it toward my interest in creating an “Autistic Book Club.”

To construct my zine, I relied on a format that I was already familiar with, that of the bifold document where you take a sheet of 8 ½ by 11 inch paper, in a landscape configuration, and fold it down the middle to create four pages. So for 8 pages, my zine would print out on two double-sided, 8 ½ by 11-inch sheets of paper, flipped on the short end.

I used to create newsletters for the local chapter of a medieval reenactors’ group and this was the format I used. More recently, I use this format to create brochures about books in the library where I work. So I was very familiar with where to place each page so that, when printed, it would be a booklet.

I went for a comic aesthetic when creating my zine: using speaking balloons and decorative elements that look like explosions layered beneath some of the text blocks. And I incorporated images of myself to become a character in my zine. The layering of my self-portrait against a background of books was one that I originally created for a slideshow. I’ve repurposed the image as a banner on some social media accounts, and now it serves as a wraparound front and back cover for my zine.

Reflecting on the use of zines to communicate in Action Research:
I think that, absolutely, zines could be used to communicate in an action research study. When I reflect back upon an earlier reading, about evaluating the quality of an action research project, one of Creswell’s indicators of high quality was that a report is presented clearly, “in a way that is acceptable to practical stakeholders” (2020, p. 602). Zines are associated “with efforts to decolonise, pluralize or queer” collections in museums (French & Curd, 2022, p. 78) and “support a broad scope of expression through their materiality” (French & Curd, 2022, p. 84).

“Historically, zines have been an underground way for marginalized communities to record their stories, share information and organise. Zines are frequently associated with anarchist politics, feminism and queer communities, and theorised as a method of ‘direct democracy’” (Jeppesen, cited by French & Curd, 2022, p. 78 ). Zines are also “popularised by countercultures whose voices are underrepresented or alienated by dominant narratives” (French & Curd, 2022, pg. 78).

This quote has direct bearing for my interest in uplifting autistic viewpoints through an “Autism Book Club.” Autistic people often find ourselves to be part of a counterculture, especially when pitted against the “medical and social deficit-based” views of autism (Elmadagli, 2023, p. 66) that frequently dominate discourse.

I think that my zine would communicate to participants what I was hoping to do through creating an Autism Book Club, especially given direct references to both the Core Values of librarianship and to challenges of perceptions about autism that autistic people have to navigate: including autistic librarians.

What creative commons considerations did I make in my zine? When looking over the various options for Creative Commons licensing, I decided that the important aspects, for me, were to ensure that I was identified as the creator and that anyone remixing my zine had to limit themselves to noncommercial applications. So I chose the CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

References:
Creswell, J. W. (2020). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Pearson.

Elmadagli, C. (2023). The future of Critical Autism Studies (CAS): Thinking through critical discourse studies and postcolonial feminism. Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2833-1508.1143

French, J., & Curd, E. (2022). Zining as artful method: Facilitating zines as participatory action research within art museums. Action Research, 20(1), 77-95.