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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.
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).
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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).
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 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).
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.
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.
Participatory research: Revisiting the roots
(Mosaic Books, 2002) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd; Brown, L. David; Jaitli, Harsh; Kanhere, Vijay; Small, Dele; Gaventa, John; Merrifield, Juliet; Madiath, Anthya; Belamide, Eileen; Bryceson, Deborah; Manicom, Linzi; Kassam, Yusuf; Vio Grossi, Francisco; Hirabai Hiralal, Mohan; Tare, Savita; Batliwala, Srilatha; Patel, Sheela; Khot, Seemantinee
It has been nearly a quarter of a century since the early formulations of participatory research began to be presented hesitatingly and tentatively. Those early proposals were essentially a reaction to the classical methodology of research and inquiry which had alienated the social science research enterprise from the very people about whom research was being carried out. In a simple way, stated then, participatory research challenged the 'monopoly of knowledge' which has been vested in the elites of our society. The production of knowledge, its certification and dissemination have been controlled by intellectual elites in all human societies, since a long period of time. The Brahmanical order justified its hierarchy by making the distinction between intellectual work and physical work. Brahmins were the repositories of knowledge and wisdom, could use the language of God's 'Sanskrit', and interpret the religious scriptures to prescribe the social norms and behaviour for the rest of society. Similar Brahmanical orders have existed in other cultures and other histories. Therefore, the first significant contribution of participatory research has been to challenge the mythical and artificial divide between mental labour and manual labour, intellectual pursuits and physical pursuits. It has questioned the belief that capacity for intellectual work resides in only a few. It argued that popular knowledge, ability to produce and use knowledge, is a universal human phenomenon, and such capacity exists in all human beings, so argued participatory research then.
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.
Building in dialogue between consumers and staff in acute mental health services
(Systemic Practice and Action Research, 1998) Wadsworth, Yoland; Epstein, Merinda
This paper describes some aspects of the methodology, material, and findings from a lengthy participatory action research engagement by a consumer organization in Australia, which was undertaken in collaboration with staff at a major public psychiatric hospital and then went on to involve "players" throughout the local, state and national mental health services system. A small first phase established a dialogic methodology for the exchange of experiences and thinking between staff and consumers. The purpose of the second phase of the research was to explore how consumers' voices might be heard, and how staff-consumer communication about that feedback, might be "built in" to ongoing organizational structure and culture. Systems thinking about defensive routines, silences, and voice-as-discourse is reported as offering a possible way of cracking the puzzle of the closed-loop cycle of claim/blame-defense-and-counter-claim/blame-defense that has been characteristic to date.
Community participation: Lessons from post-apartheid South Africa
(Policy Studies, 2006) Williams, John J.
The South African post-apartheid constitution provides for community participation in the construction, implementation and evaluation of integrated development planning at local level. This article reviews and assesses community participation in practice drawing on the findings of a range of research projects conducted in Cape Town since 1994. It is argued that contemporary understanding of community participation in South Africa is informed by the memory of community struggle - a radical form of participation - against the racist apartheid State. This means that communities have a richly-textured history of strategic mobilization against exclusionary and discriminatory government practices at the local level. It is precisely this repertoire of radical strategies that can and should be revisited and adapted, to advance the interests of the materially marginalized communities at the local level. 'People driven' development programmes through Integrated Development Planning (IDP) in post-apartheid South Africa in general, and Cape Town in particular, have thus far been largely rhetorical and not substantive. Hence, the enduring challenge of the perennial question at the grassroots level remains - in whose interest is community participation really driven?
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.
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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