Participation in interactive documentary is complex – ranging from 'clicking on the world' to commenting on content, crowd-sourcing projects or contributing material. Foremost, however, participation is a concept that cannot be thought of without bearing in mind its social and political dimension.

In a conversation with Kate Nash, we unpack participation as a concept with both a long history in documentary theory and loaded with great expectations in emerging documentary cultures; we fathom the significance of interactive documentary in the achievement of citizenship, convening publics and community building; we explore the delicate balance between process and product in participatory media making; we discuss the sensitive issue of power relations; and – revisiting paradigmatic i-docs – we relate theories to actual practices, to finally fathom the potential of i-docs beyond interactivity as a highly fragile, volatile but thus the more so experimental and inspirational phenomenon of our current media culture.