Feminist participatory research in a social justice organization

Abstract

The authors of this article are staff members of a not-for-profit and non-hierarchical Canadian social justice organization. As members of a co-management team, they were mandated by their colleagues to lead research on the organization’s practice. In this article, they share their experience of conducting feminist participatory action research in an environment that functions by consensus. They provide an overview of the organization’s work and structure, then outline how the collective research process unfolded. The authors then discuss the synergy between the organizational structure and the research, that is, how staff members’ practice and commitment to process and consensus facilitated and strengthened the research. Finally, they share findings related to the importance of process for building alliances, learning, and collective action domestically and internationally.