PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
CITATIONS
REPRESENTATIONS OF PAR
- A PAR model
- which combines research, education and action, challenges the "North American and European model based on empiricism and positivism and characterized by an attention to instrument construction and rigor defined by statistical precision and replaceability (Hall 1994:3330)."
- PAR, PR Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
- are all part of a family of methodologies "... that enable people to express and analyse the realities of their lives and conditions, to plan themselves what action to take, and to monitor and evaluate the results it emphasises processes which empower local people" (IDS Policy Briefing Issue 7: August 1996.)
- "The decision, then, to attempt participatory research grows out of a deep belief in the ability of people, ourselves included, to grow change, challenge injustice and oppression, and take increased control of our lives and communities through collective action, however small. Yet we live within the very structure we seek to transform. It is not a neat intellectual exercise. Collective work is messy and time-consuming. People may decide not to take action. They will surely not become empowered, liberated or transformed on our schedules." (Maguire, 1993:176)
- Basic assumptions underlying PAR
- "A number of basic assumptions underlie participatory approaches to research and evaluation:
1) Inquiry is not neutral, but is socially constructed. 2) Research and evaluation are political processes. Someone gains from the process and products of inquiry.
Science is a cultural product; it is not context free. 3) What is investigated and how it is implemented are grounded in the historical, cultural, political and economic context within which it is conducted. 4) Experts are not the only ones who can create valid knowledge. Ordinary people are capable of generating knowledge that is as important and as valid as that produced by more highly structured and scientific processes." (Whitmore 1998)
- PR and building community relationships
- Participatory Research (PR) contributes to building community relationships. "John Gaventa writes eloquently about this in Power and Powerlessness. Working with others to investigate the sources of strength and oppression in a community creates possibilities to create change, to mobilise the energy and talents of the community members, and to discover and secure outside resources. Effective research includes learning how to organise and intervene strategically, how to work in groups, and how to deal with conflicts internal to the community." (Gaventa 1980 cited in Minewatch)
- Oppositional research practices
- "Research practices that have been described as evolving in opposition to colonial and neocolonial social science research paradigms have provided academic elite in many geographical locations with a new frame for the solidarity they claim with social justice movements. In the last two decades, participatory research (PR) has emerged across various disciplines including sociology, adult education, community development, native studies, environmental studies, and community health. This discourse of `emancipatory' or `participatory' research is constructed as an oppositional practice, as a tool or framework for pursuing an antisubordination or social justice agenda."(Fischer 1996)
- Participatory research by any name
- "Countless groups make use of processes that resemble participatory research without naming it or certainly without asking for outside validation of the knowledge produced (Hall 1994:1334)."
- Knowledge/power
- "Knowledge or information is a potential source of power and, as such, it ought not to be the exclusive domain of dominant institutions..." (Jackson, Kassam 1998)
- Validation of local knowledge
- PAR validates other forms of knowledge giving control of knowledge generation to communities. (Fals-Borda and Rahman 1991, Selener 1997).
- Epistemological and ontological issues arising in AR
- Action Research is research that is embedded in human action and activity rather than research that maintains a distance from human subjects. Ontological and epistemological issues that become pivotal in action research involve the nature of science, that status of "knowledge", the relation between science and spiritual values and the relation between objective and subjective knowings. Reason and Heron describe stages of knowing, progressing through experiential, aesthetic, propositional and practical forms (p 179). Habermas' threefold division of knowing into the objective, moral/social, and subjective (Park, Peter 84). But perhaps the dominant critique of the nature of knowing centred around what June Boyce-Tillman The Wounds that Sing calls "subjugated ways of knowing", a classification based on the relation of knowing to the power-status of groups in society.
review Reason
The practice of science, as a human activity, is inextricably bound up with the politics of power.
review Reason
- Aktionsforschung
- Reseau culture "Elle s'insurge aussi contre la notion newtonienne et positiviste-instrumentaliste du savoir distancié (le sujet face à l'objet de son savoir...Moreno, le père du psycho-drame ou socio-drame avait dès 1913 inventé la notion de "Aktionsforschung" (recherche-action) en travaillant comme médecin dans le milieu des prostituées à Vienne (Autriche)."
- BUt fondamental la démocratisation: recherche-action-recherche-action
- "Celui qui est considéré comme le père de la recherche-action est Kurt Lewin, lequel avait initié avec des jeunes une méthode "qui commence là où le client se trouve". Il invita des jeunes à analyser leur propre situation. Il voulait éviter la coupure entre la production du savoir et les "objets" de ce savoir. Il voulut au contraire intégrer les gens en tant qu'acteurs dans la réflexion qui finirait par les affecter. La spirale recherche-action-recherche-action a pour but fondamental la démocratisation."
- Creating, owning knowledge as emancipatory
- "The conduct of human inquiries within this worldview is emancipatory in a broad political sense in that inquiry supports people in learning through experience, in creating and owning their own knowledge..." (Moggridge A. and Peter Reason. 1996. Human Inquiry: Steps Towards Emancipatory Practice. Systems Practice, 9 (2), 159-175.) WWW Moggridge
- Resisting restrictive frameworks: epistemological aspects of creating and owning knowledge
- In an epistemological sense, human inquiry also helps people move away from restrictive frameworks for understanding themselve and their possible actions in the world towards a more grounded understanding of themselves in relation to the human communities in which they participate." (Moggridge A. and Peter Reason. 1996. Human Inquiry: Steps Towards Emancipatory Practice. Systems Practice, 9 (2), 159-175.) WWW Moggridge
- Need for more critical stance regarding underlying values and outcomes of participatory methods
- "The last decade has seen exciting innovations and a tremendous spread of participatory tools and methods, and a wholesale but often uncritical adoption of participatory approaches. There is a need for a more critical stance - to improve the capacity of ourselves and others for reflection and analysis; to think not only of methods but also of the purposes and values which they promote; to deepen and consolidate knowledge of what works, for whose benefit, to what ends, and why. In encouraging these critical and theoretical reflections, our stance must be proactive, to promote the quality and rigor of intellectual and methodological debate, and to encourage continuous reflective praxis." Institute of Development Studies, Sussex Robert Chambers
- Technical fix not authentic participation
- For some "...the enthusiastic adoption of participatory rhetoric by these institutions [such as the World Bank]and the near orthodoxy of support for participatory approaches amongst donors, NGOs and governments is less a cause for celebration. Participation, they would contend, has become a legitimating device, drawing on the moral authority of claims to involve the poor in defining and pursuing their own development to place the pursuit of other agendas beyond reproach. For them, much of what is hailed as 'participation' consists of a mere technical fix that leaves unchallenged the global and local relations of inequality in which poverty and powerlessness remain embedded." Institute of Development Studies, Sussex Robert Chambers
- Relations between lifeworlds and social systems: Participatory research in this equation?
- "We begin to see how the social practice which is research is a social practice which relates to (and has its meaning in a context of) other social practices like those involved in serving a bureaucracy, or participating in the practices which constitute a disciplinary field, or participating in social movements. One consequence of taking such a view of research is that some researchers will begin to make markedly different decisions about how they will participate in the research act, and on whose behalf - for example, on behalf of the social order and/or on behalf of social movements like the civil rights movement, one or another feminism, or the environmental movement (to name just a few). Alain Touraine's (1981) analysis of the relations between social order and social movement, or Jurgen Habermas's (1987) analysis of the relations between system and lifeworld can also help to illuminate such insights." (Kemmis 1993)
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Multiple Outlets: What is the purpose of the research?
- There can be multiple outlets. A well-planned body of research can provide data for a number of reports. This leaves room for an arms-length report produced by an academic for a journal, a dissertation or other scholarly publication. The local community can access the raw data and analyse it and interpret it according to their required outcomes. The raw data itself may have an archival function especially in communities where oral records are being collected from those who are pre-literate or who prefer oral communication to written.
In their research strategies for training clerical workers in Metro Toronto, community and university-based activists in the labour movement carved out a working relationship that was mutually beneficial. Both groups recognized that there were constraints inherent in the research project. They resolved some of the tension by developing a “...strategy of having multiple outlets of research findings.” In this way, for example, academics could openly critique the shoddy treatment of clerical workers in a scholarly outlet. The committee, composed of government, business, labour and community workers, also compiled report which was negotiated and mediated to accommodate the diverse interests could omit that critique. (Wong 1996)
“I wanted to be useful to the project... I didn't mind if what I had to say showed up in the report, because we could take what we had and write an article. So we had our own outlet, our own voice. (University-based partner)" (Wong 1996:35)
ABORIGINAL AND INUIT APPLICATIONS OF PAR
- Aboriginal movement adopted PR
- "[F]ew other social movements have in recent years so thoroughly adopted participatory research as a tool to attain their goals as has the Aboriginal movement..." (Jackson 1993:49)
CRITIQUES OF PAR
- Whose policies dictate research guidelines in Inuit communities? 1995
- "...the laws, policies and guidelines that pertain to research in Inuit communities and within the Inuit homeland are not ones Inuit have created but rather government, professional institutions and associations have established. It is these bodies and institutions that also have access to the scarce funding available for research. Now things are beginning to change with land claims and self-government negotiations." (Flaherty 1994).
- Exploitation and appropriation of Inuit knowledge
- "In our work at Pauktuutit, there is a growing concern among Inuit women about the exploitation and appropriation of Inuit knowledge, practices and culture by well-intentioned, well-meaning researchers." (Flaherty 1994). .
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- Partipatory Research design, analysis and outcomes: Who is accountable? Who decides?
- We hear a lot about researchers who use the “participatory action research model.” Our experience has taught us that participatory [end p. 179]research does not mean the community has a real role in deciding what the research topic will be, analyzing the data or deciding what or how the information obtained in the research will be used or distributed." (Flaherty 1994). .
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- Participatory strategies coopted and appropriate by dominant forces
- "The extent and speed by which participatory strategies and processes are being coopted and appropriated by dominant forces invites critical scrutiny of what the representions within PR discourse enable. It is crucial to develop strategies for constructing research narratives that interrupt the competing regimes of truth that mark the production of racialized identities and narratives." (Fischer 1996)
- Embedded capitalist managerial ideology in Aboriginal organizations
- "Close relations between Aboriginal leadership and the state have embedded a capitalist managerial ideology in Aboriginal organizations." (Jackson 1993:58)
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Research partnerships: Academics and community members
Multiple outlets of research findings"Academics' and community activists' understanding of the inherent constraints of the project and the strategy of having multiple "outlets" of research findings were key to resolving this tension." I wanted to be useful to the project... I didn't mind if what I had to say showed up in the report, because we could take what we had and write an article. So we had our own outlet, our own voice. (University-based partner)" (CRIAW 1996:35)
Legitimacy of knowledge, local knowledge as fully scientific "An immediate objective...is to return to the people the legitimacy of the knowledge they are capable of producing through their own verification systems, as fully scientific, and the right to use this knowledge, but not be dictated by itas a guide in their own action." (Fals-Borda, Rahman l991:15).
PAR, IK AND IQ
- Indigenous knowledge
- (IK) "refers to the unique, traditional, local knowledge existing within and developed around the specific conditions of women and men indigenous to a particular geographic area." IK systems are dynamic. They are a culmination of generations of experiences, trial-and-error experiments and careful observations. IK is shared and communicated orally and by example (observation). (Grenier 1998:1, 2)
- The Erosion of IK Systems IK, biodiversity and cultural diversity are threatened by
- rapid modernization and cultural homogenization. Traditional channels of oral communication have been disrupted through displacement of family members, the imposition of western education systems and the introduction of communication systems such as television. IK has been either ignored or maligned by racist and/or ethnocentric colonial powers and scientists who placed complete faith in the progress of modernity and western science. (p.4-5)Nationalistic governments promote one language and one culture to the detriment of indigenous cultures. Formal schooling reinforces negative attitudes. (Grenier 1998)
- Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit "ITC supports the policy initiative of the Nunavut
- Social Development Council for emphasizing Inuit knowledge of the environment, ecology and cultural heritage as part of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. The term Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. (IQ) encompasses all aspects of traditional Inuit culture including values, world-view, language, social organization, knowledge, life skills, perceptions, and expectations." (ITC)
- (TEK) Traditional knowledge.
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"The ultimate aim of the Guidelines is to help develop a framework - within which affected indigenous peoples can expect to receive information that will allow them to choose, on an appropriate collective basis through free and prior informed consent, whether a development project should go ahead. In the event they choose to go ahead, that they are offered the opportuntity to participate in the planning and implementation of the project, using their traditional knowledge systems to help guide the decisions that will affect their future, and that the use of that knowledge and their participation is handled with respect, trust, equity and empowerment." (Emery 2000)
OTHER RELATED TOPICS
- North as last frontier
- "We look upon the north as our last frontier," he said. "It is natural for us to think of developing the north, of subduing the land, populating it with people from southern Canada, and extracting its resources to fuel Canada's industry and heat our homes. Our whole inclination is to think in terms of expanding our industrial machine to the limit of our country's frontiers. But the native people are saying to us, why do you say the north is your last frontier? Why should you develop it? They feel it is their homeland, that they should determine what is to happen there. They say, we have lived here for thousands of years. We are the majority. What right have you to tell us what the future must hold for us? What right have you to exploit the resources of the land where we live? It is a question being asked of the white race all over the world." Thomas Berger cited in (O'Malley 1999)
- Action research
- "One type of participatory research is action research (AR). AR, developed in the context of organizational and industrial efforts to improve performance, is where management (or some party that holds power) defines the research problem and determines how the results will be used, though workers or community members are incorporated in the intermediate stages of research in order to tap into their knowledge and abilities (Brown and Tandon 1983). Another form of participatory research is participatory action research (PAR), which has roots in radical philosophies and in movements of groups with little power in developing countries (Selener 1997). In PAR, the group of people attempting to solve a practical problem controls the entire process (Hall 1981, Ishida 1999)
- Verstehen
- Shields presents five major points that challenge the current Verstehen approach to cross-cultural communicative understanding in interpretive social science. “1) Verstehen is predicated on synthesis rather than multiplicity. 2) Verstehen is based on the pre-semiotic Romantic theory of communication as communion: 'Speaking-with' is transposed into 'speaking-as' an Other.3) The 'empathetic aspect' of Verstehen silences the Other by masking difference. This leads to a pattern of 'speaking-for'. 4) Verstehen objectifies the position of Self and obscures it. The legitimacy of the researcher's 'outsider' voice 'speaking-to' can become obscured ushering in a crisis for interpretive research. 5) Dialogism offers us the potential position Self and Other in an ethical relation.” (Shields 1996) See also Dialogical Verstehen.
- Volk
- "... is a much more comprehensive term than people. [T]o German thinkers ever since the birth of German romanticism in the late eighteenth century Volk signified the union of a group of people with a transcendental "essence." This "essence" might be called "nature" or "cosmos" or "mythos," but in each instance it was fused to man's innermost nature, and represented the source of his creativity, his depth of feeling, his individuality, and his unity with other members of the Volk. (Mosse, George. 1964 The Crisis of German Ideology)
- Volksgeist
- “J.G. Herder wrote in 1784, five years before the French Revolution, his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind" in which his asserted that all true culture must rise from native roots, the life of the common people "the volk", not from the cosmopolitan mannerism of the upper classes. A sound civilization must express the Volksgeist, or national character. The French, in comparison, has a less developed tolerance for cultural relativity. The idea of Volksgeist became a highly significant idea through Europe and later around the world. It was the fundamental appeal in romantic thought against rationalism. It celebrates difference along with similarity in mankind, in contrary paths against the Age of Enlightenment and its coercive universality. Hegel asserts that for a people to enjoy freedom, order, and dignity, it must be in control of a potent and independent state, the institutional embodiment of reason and liberty.” (Liu 2002) “The age of French Revolution and Napoleonic triumph coincided with German cultural efflorescence with Beethoven, Goethe, Schiller, Herter, Kant, Fichte and Hegel, who embodied German romanticism against the rational dryness of the French dominated Age of Reason. Following the Peace of Westphalia, German nationalism was largely dormant until late 18th century. The German upper class was contemptuous of anything German, their taste and mannerism and literature was French; their music, art and architecture were Italian. Frederich the Great hired French tax collectors and wrote in French.” (Liu 2002)
- Literacy
- "To support his
argument that vernacular literacy is transitional to literacy in other stronger
languages, Mühlhäusler (1990) cites a statement by Gudschinsky (1968: 150),
namely a person does not need to learn how to read and write twice but only
once because that knowledge of reading and writing transfers from one language
to the other. This, however, does not match his point of argument. It is not about
an inevitable one-way change of language but about the transfer of the
knowledge between two languages. The transitional nature of vernacular literacy
is more a matter of language and education policy than of literacy itself." (Tauchi 2000)
- Globalization
- has no conscience, no morality.” Bob Blair,the prime pipeline proponent during the Berger Inquiry, advised northern residents to work on supplying any projects that come forward, as that provides work and skills that can be portable. In closing, he advised, “Keep regional control, as much as you can…seize it and hold it. In the end, your future is based on things you can control yourself.” True North Strong and Free Symposium
- Disconnect between real needs of community and big themes of governance and development
- There is a "disconnection between the big themes of governance and development, and the real needs of the community." "If development on the scale of a pipeline is to come to the Northwest Territories, it must address the human scale of the needs of northerners. We believe that a serious look at the principles endorsed by CARC and other environmental groups active in the north would be a good place for developers and governments to start."True North Strong and Free Symposium
References
- Fischer, Wendy. 1996. "Race and Representation: The Construction of Identity in Participatory Research." Paper presented at CASID Annual Conference. St. Catherines: Brock University. http://www.brocku.ca/epi/casid/fischer.htm
- Gaventa, John. 1980. Power and Powerlessness, Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. University of Illinois Press.
- Grenier, Louise. 1998. Working with Indigenous Knowledge: A Guide for Researchers.
- Ottawa: International Development Research Centre IDRC Books
- Jackson, Edward T. and Yusuf Kassam. Eds. Knowledge Shared: Participatory Evaluation in Development Cooperation.
- Hall, Budd. 1994. "Participatory Research" in Husen, T. and Postlethwaite, T.N. (Editors-in-Chief) The International Encyclopedia of Education. Second Edition, Vol 7, London: Elsevier Science Lmt., pp. 4330-4336.
- Fals-Borda, Orlando and Mohammad Anisur Rahman. Eds. 1991. Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research. New York: APEX Press.
- MiningWatch Canada. 2000. "On the Ground Research:A Research Agenda for
- Communities Affected by Large-Scale Mining Activity."Ottawa: International Development Research Centre. November 6. http://www.miningwatch.ca/publications/Research_agenda.html
- Tauchi, Yuko. 2000. "Who decides?
Introducing literacy to preliterate societies: Pros and cons" Master of Applied Linguistics
Minor Project. The Centre for Studies of Language in Education. Darwin, AU: Northern Territory University. http://www.ntu.edu.au/education/csle/student/tauchi/tauchi0.html
- Whitmore, Elizabeth. 1998."We Need to Rebuild This House": The Role of
Empowerment in Evaluation of a Mexican Farmers' Cooperative." in Jackson, Edward T. and Yusuf Kassam. Eds. Knowledge Shared: Participatory Evaluation in Development Cooperation. pp. 217 - 231.
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