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Bridging Knowledge Cultures: Rebalancing Power in the Co-Construction of Knowledge
(Brill, 2024) Lepore, Walter; Hall, Budd L.; Tandon, Rajesh
Establishing truly respectful, mutually beneficial, and equitable knowledge creation partnerships with diverse communities poses significant challenges for academia. Bridging Knowledge Cultures provides valuable insights into the dynamics involved and the obstacles encountered when attempting to establish meaningful research partnerships between different knowledge domains. This book goes beyond exploration by offering practical recommendations to overcome these challenges and forge effective collaboration between mainstream research institutions and community groups and organizations. This book includes ten compelling case studies conducted by research and training hubs established through the global Knowledge for Change Consortium. These case studies encompass community-university research partnerships across various geographical locations, tackling a wide range of societal issues and acknowledging the wealth of knowledge created by local communities. The overarching goal of this book is to inspire the next generation of researchers and professionals to embrace the richness of diverse perspectives and knowledge cultures. By advocating for the construction of "bridges" through practical approaches, the book encourages a shift from competition to collaboration in research. Ultimately, it aims to foster an environment where different forms of knowledge can intersect and thrive, leading to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of the world around us.
Background document for university - community engagement
(University of Victoria, 2007) Office of Community-Based Research (OCBR); Dragne, Cornelia
The report examined the ways universities coordinate their engagement efforts from the university's side, by examining academic reports and universities websites. Being a two-way relationship, the picture would have been complete if the community side would have been presenting its own account. However, due to the large number of different interactions with various community partners, even for a single university such picture is not feasible for this report to build. Academics engaged in community-based research and activities are people committed to the idea of engagement and its strong supporters. By reviewing accounts of existing institutional commitments, the report presents a view strongly supportive of the idea that allocating institutional resources to university-community engagement is the way to go. The report overlooks the epistemological debates surrounding engagement scholarship and community-based forms of research, as well as the concerns about the ethics of academic-community interaction. Another limitation stems from the fact that English language was used for all the searches.
Institutionalizing community university research partnerships: A user’s manual
(PRIA and University of Victoria, 2015) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd
This manual on Institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships is both a handy reference and a ready tool-kit for university and college administrators interested in establishing and improving Community University Research Partnership initiatives in their institutions. It provides practical guidelines and steps that will help deliver on policy commitments made to promote Community University Engagement/Community University Research Partnerships in higher educational institutions. These guidelines, supplemented with best practices (in boxes) from around the world, are intended to show a way forward, and are not necessarily prescriptive; they offer insights into how institutions can build and sustain Community University Research Partnership practices and structures. These best practices are a snapshot of current administrative structures and institutional policies that are facilitative of Community University Research Partnerships. A section on Frequently Asked Questions provides ready answers to questions that may arise in the process of institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships. Resources and further readings at the end of the manual are an aid to further learning. The content of the manual has been carefully drawn from available global literature, much of it culled from products of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded global study on 'Mainstreaming Community University Research Partnerships' conducted under the aegis of the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education. This global study documented case studies across 12 countries and a comparative analysis of the cases highlighted the practices and exemplars for institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships. This easy-to-use manual is an effort of the UNESCO Co-Chairs towards co-creating knowledge, capacities and partnerships between universities (academics), communities (civil society) and government (policymakers). We hope it will be beneficial to all universities, colleges and other higher educational institutions that are sensitive to the issue of social responsibility and the potential of community based research to provide local solutions to global problems for local communities. We look forward to your comments and feedback once you have started on the journey of institutionalizing Community University Research Partnerships in your institution.
In from the cold? Reflections on participatory research from 1970-2005
(Convergence, 2005) Hall, Budd L.
Participatory Research is a term which was first articulated in Tanzania in the early 1970s to describe a variety of community-based approaches to the creation of knowledge. Taken together these approaches combine social investigation, education and action in an interrelated process. The International Council for Adult Education provided a home in 1976 for what became the International Participatory Research Network, the means by which the ideas and practices of participatory research became more widely visible. Participatory research was a concept which, unlike most contemporary research paradigms, originated in the majority world. It originated in the rapidly expanding networks of non-governmental organisations in the 1980s and 90s. It has been the research approach of choice in many of the social movement interventions of the past 20 years. Participatory research and its sister concept participatory action research have in the past 15 years been taken up in many universities around the world both as a teaching subject and as a research method for graduate studies. One might say that, participatory research has come “in from the cold”, that it has come in from the margins to become an accepted member of the academic family.
Issues to consider
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1982) International Council for Adult Education. Participatory Research Network
A list of 'issues to consider' when doing participatory research, including: goals, control, role of the participatory researcher, training, participatory evaluation, guidelines for participatory research, and obstacles and limitations.
Participatory research in the Caribbean: Principles, practice, problems and potential. Issues and cases of the Caribbean Participatory Research Network, 1984-85
(Caribbean Regional Council for Adult Education (CARCAE), 1985) Harvey, Claudia
A simple definition of research is that it is a systematic means of seeking information, explanation (cause and effect) and understanding of a complexity of factors. Any form of research, however, derives from a particular tradition - a body of theory and a methodology developed over time. Each discipline is marked by particular assumptions, concepts, questions methods and explanations which distinguish it from other disciplines. The assumptions derive from the particular perspective or view of the world held by the adherents to that particular discipline. The concepts are the specialized language used within the discipline to ask questions for which answers are sought using particular processes, principles and procedures. These assumptions, concepts and methods shape the kinds of questions asked and the explanations provided.
Building capacity through action learning
(Institute for Development Research (IDR) Reports, 1993) Leach, Mark
The ability to learn from experience is critical for individuals and organizations seeking to be effective in rapidly changing and complex situations. Educators, corporate managers, public administrators, and grass roots activists have all been challenged by the dilemmas of learning from action and experience. While using many different terms (including action research, action science, experiential learning, participatory research, organizational learning, learning systems, etc.) these people have developed a rich and varied set of insights into facilitating what might be generally called "action learning." The purpose of this paper is to review several streams of work related to action learning (AL), and to consolidate some of the key principles in an effort to help organizations expand their capacity to develop action learning strategies. Particular attention will be paid to the relevance of action learning principles for non-governmental and community based organizations (NGOs and CBOs).
Participatory research in Asia
(Asian-South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, 1980) Tandon, Rajesh
This volume represents a major step in the Participatory Research Project (PRP) in Asia and is the first publication of its kind in the region. It has now been a little over two years since the project was started by the International Council for Adult Education. The PRP has been implemented through the creation and strengthening of five regional networks, and I have been acting as the coordinator of the Asian Regional Network for the past 18 months. A statement of the objectives of the Participatory Research Project and Network is included as an appendix.
Participatory research: A new methodology for adult educators?
(National Center for Research in Vocational Education, 1979) Griffith, William S.; Cristarella, Mary C.
Participatory research is a term which has been appearing within the past several years in international adult education conferences and which some commentators believe has the potential of redirecting research within the field of adult education. The International Conference on Adult Education and Development held in Dar-es-Salaam in June, 1976, proposed that "all adult educators should receive training in the theory and practice of participatory research as well as in complementary quantitative research techniques" (Dar-es-Salaam Design for Action, 1976, p.32). The UNESCO program action plan for 1977-1982 includes the support of future participatory research (Hurly, 1976). Cain states "the forces producing the demand for something called 'participatory research' are numerous and compelling" (Cain, 1977, p.7).
Participatory evaluation and research: Main concepts and issues
(Indian Social Institute, 1981) Tandon, Rajesh
From the days in the 1930s when the University of Bombay first introduced a post-graduate course in sociology, to our days, there has been a gradual change to the professionalization of the social sciences. With professionalization came specialisation and its acceptance as a science that can be considered objective by creating a distance between the researcher and the 'object' of study i.e., the people studied—actors in the social setting.
A review: The participatory research project
(Learning, 1978) MacNeil, Teresa
Participatory Research is a project of the International Council for Adult Education and has as its goal "the study and dissemination of information about research processes which focus on popular groups in the exploration and transformation of their own reality. " The current manifestation of its work is in the form of four Working Papers. I'm inclined to say three working papers since the fourth is an annotated bibliography and as such, does not challenge the reader to modify its contents as do the ideas in a working paper. The modification of the contents of each of these papers is what their producers have explicitly invited through their direction to "please duplicate and distribute these papers at will. We would be interested to know if you do." That sort of open invitation is truly in keeping with adult education tradition if not with the spirit of our current copyright legislation.
Participatory research and action in India
(Social Action, 1989) Fernandes, Walter
Where does participatory research stand today in India? To understand this, one needs to see where participatory action stands today; because a genuinely participatory approach to research has to be a response to action. Though this has not always been the case, in recent years most scholars who have got into participatory research have taken to it as a result of demands from the field. In order to understand this, in this paper we shall at first study the developments in the 1950s and 1960s that led to the formation of social activist groups and after that see in what way some scholars decided to support action in the field. We shall end it with some questions concerning the present, particularly some recent experiments.
Putting scientists in their place: Participatory research in environmental and occupational health
(Economics Education Project, 1989) Merrifield, Juliet
Many community and workplace activists have come into head-on collision with the scientific establishment in recent years over threats to people's health from toxic chemicals in the environment and workplaces. These conflicts have cast doubts on some of the most deeply embedded values of science itself, including the central concept of objectivity. This article reviews some of the issues of control over the production and use of scientific knowledge which have emerged from struggles over the past decade in the southeastern United states. Alternative approaches have been developed which range from systematizing and validating people's own knowledge, to attempts to develop a 'new' science which is responsive to people's needs and accountable to their oversight.
Participatory research in health: Setting the context
(Zed Books, 1996) de Koning, Korrie; Martin, Marion
Many contributors to this book assume some familiarity with concepts which may not be familiar to all health professionals. Our aim in this introduction is to set into context those issues and theoretical concepts which are frequently referred to in the text. These include educational processes based on Freire's critical pedagogy (Freire 1972), issues around difference, for example in gender, and contemporary notions of knowledge production.
Participatory action research (PAR) in women's health: SARTHI, India
(Zed Books, 1996) Khanna, Renu
I would like to place these reflections in the context of my own experiences, both personal and work-related. I do this because I believe that I am typical of my kind, an activist and a practitioner working on women's issues. My educational background and training have contributed to the way I see myself. I have been a practitioner concerned with pragmatic action to bring about social change. I understood research as something lofty and abstract, concerned with a world of ideas. I have had, in fact, a mortal fear of research, resulting in a tendency to distance myself mentally from anything which was even remotely research-like. Second, somewhere quite early in my working life, I began seeing myself as an enabler, a facilitator for empowerment. This commitment to empowerment grew and gradually I began recognizing this, and around nine years ago I made some very conscious choices about my future work which I decided was to be in the area of women's empowerment. It is against this background that I shall examine the topic of PAR in women's health. What implications and meaning does PAR have for practitioners and for women's empowerment? In order to arrive at a conceptual understanding of PR for women's health action, I shall draw upon the last nine years' experiences that I have had working with Social Action for Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India (SARTHI).
Fifteen years of Participatory-Research-in-Asia
(Participation & Governance, 1997) Tandon, Rajesh
We have just completed fifteen years of our experience as PRIA. The seeds of this organisation were sown by the early work on participatory research during the late 70s. That experience provided the philosophical basis for our work: Knowledge is Power. This perspective inspired the early activities we undertook by promoting a number of initiatives which emphasised recognition and articulation of indigenous popular knowledge in the fields of education, health-care, natural resource management etc. Over the years, different ways of expressing that philosophy gained ascendancy in PRIA's work. Today, our work in strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions as mechanisms of local self-governance is its most explicit expression. We are using methods of organising and promoting the learning of leadership in local bodies to play their rightful role as self-governing institutions. Special emphasis is being placed on learning and empowerment of new leadership in these institutions: women and socioeconomically weaker sections of society.
Knowledge and social change: An inquiry into participatory research in India
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1985) Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
During the past decade, innovations in research methodology have been attempted in different parts of the world. These innovations have arisen out of dissatisfactions from the dominant social science research methodology that became the bulwark of all inquiry in social problems and phenomena during the twentieth century Critiques of traditional social science methodology have been made on the grounds of neutrality, objectivity and control by professionals. The recent criticism has been most sharply voiced by adult educators from the third world countries where they experienced traditional social science research methodology as alienating and dehumanising, an anti-thesis of all the principles and beliefs of adult and popular education.
Participatory research in the empowerment of people
(Convergence, 1981) Tandon, Rajesh
The last decade has seen a growing interest in alternative research paradigms in social science research. Much of the impetus for the search for alternatives has come from the experiences of professionally-trained researchers who found their paradigms inadequate to provide answers to all the questions they had. Another push towards the search has emerged from the continuing failures of development efforts in the Third World. As accepted and prevalent models for development, growth and change begin to show cracks, policy-makers and administrators are yelling for 'something' that may work, thereby restoring confidence in their positions of authority and in themselves.
The historical roots and contemporary tendencies in participatory research: Implications for health care
(Zed Books, 1996) Tandon, Rajesh
The history of human civilization is also the history of education and science. In fact, one of the most critical dimensions in which human species have distinguished themselves from other forms of life is their intellectual capacity. Both education and science are built on this foundation. Throughout human civilization, therefore, different forms approaches, methodologies and outcomes of education have been evolved, practised and abandoned. Similarly, science, even in its modern conception, has existed throughout much of human history. It was science which allowed human civilization to live with nature; some of it became science which encouraged human beings to control nature.
On research and action
(Economic and Political Weekly, 2002) Dreze, Jean
The value of scientific research can, in many circumstances, be enhanced if it is combined with real-world involvement and action. This approach should be seen as an essential complement of, not a substitute far, research of a more 'detached' kind

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