The Participatory Cultures Lab is organized around the study and use of visual and other participatory approaches to research and social action, and involves the work of collaborators and research students engaged in the study of participatory research. Central to the interests of the team, this work includes the study and use of such visual tools as digital storytelling, photovoice, participatory video, participatory archiving, cellphilms, objects and things, collage, and other arts-based approaches in the process of collecting, analyzing, and working with research data. It also links to memory work, self-study and to various autoethnographic approaches to research. The work links to issues of social justice, focusing on such areas as youth sexuality and HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, food security, and poverty alleviation.

Much of the work of the PCL takes place in collaboration with The Centre for Visual Methodologies and Social Change at The University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the Visual Methodologies for Social Change Unit, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is also part of the Global Education, Diversity and Policy Research Group of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education.

The Participatory Cultures Lab draws on the engagement of research collaborators working in various countries including Canada, the US, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Liberia, Vietnam and Indonesia and across a range of disciplinary areas including Education, Health and Agriculture.