Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting People, Participation and Place

This book seeks to capture developments in Participatory Action Research (PAR) approaches and methods, which involve collaborative research, education, and action that is oriented towards social change. It explores the justification, theorisation, practice, and implications of PAR. It offers a critical introduction to understanding and working with PAR in different social, spatial, and institutional contexts.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part explores the intellectual, ethical, and pragmatic contexts of PAR; the development and diversity of approaches to PAR; recent poststructuralist perspectives on PAR as a form of power; the ethic of participation; and issues of safety and well-being. Part two is a critical exploration of the politics, places, and practices of PAR. Contributors draw on diverse research experiences with differently situated groups and issues, including environmentally sustainable practices, family livelihoods, sexual health, gendered experiences of employment, and specific communities, such as people with disabilities, migrant groups, and young people. The principles, dilemmas, and strategies associated with participatory approaches and methods (including diagramming, cartographies, art, theatre, photovoice, video, and geographical information systems) are also discussed. Part three reflects on how effective PAR is, including the analysis of its products and processes, participatory learning, representation and dissemination, institutional benefits and challenges, and working between research, action, activism, and change.

The authors find that a spatial perspective and an attention to scale offer helpful means of negotiating the potentials and paradoxes of PAR. This approach responds to critiques of PAR by highlighting how the spatial politics of practising participation can be mobilised to create more effective and just research processes and outcomes.