# Citizen story
*Authors: [Anne Pässilä](https://www.linkedin.com/in/annepassila/)*

Summary
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**Art-form**^1^: Visual and performing art

*Citizen story*

**Requirements**
* Time: 90 minutes
* Difficulty^2^: 1 star
* What you'll need: Theatrical images, pencils and paper for mapping
* Participants: Any age group over 12 year of old

Description
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**Steps**
1. Choosing a Theatrical Image that describes a burning issue related to what has identified to be improved
2. Creating a story with the help of Theatrical Image by answering following questions:
* What is happening in the situation the image is representing?
* When and where does it happen?
* Whom is involved in that situation?
* Who is the main character? Who else was involved?
* How did the character act and react?
* How did the other characters feel?
* What do they say to each other?
* What are their hidden and deep thoughts?
* What is the atmosphere of the situation and is there tension and if there is what is the cause?
* What kind of emotions are emerging and what kind of reactions do these emotions cause?
3. Sharing your story in small groups
4. Mapping all the burning issues visualizing how them are related to issue what has identified to be improved

**Which stage to use it in**
* Framing

**Why it is useful**
Fast way to include every participants point of views as well as including everyone to framing the issue that has to be improved.

**How to document**
Observing notes, video or audio (stage3) and photos (stage 4 maps)

**Analysis**
Discourse analysis, thematic analysis or ethnodrama

*Footnotes*

^1^ Categories are based on Sara Coemans and Karin Hannes. 2017. Researchers under the spell of the arts: Two decades of using arts-based methods in community-based inquiry with vulnerable populations. Educational Research Review 22 (2017), 34–49.
^2^ 1-5 stars, I star being easy to facilitate and do not require deep artistic skills and 5 stars requiring deep level artistic skills.

###### tags: `art-based methods guide` `book` `method`