Participatory Action Research: Coproduction, Governance and Care

Abstract

AbstractIn the wake of recent academic interest in coproduction, engaged research and transdisciplinarity, this article reviews some developments and directions in participatory action research (PAR), mainly within human geography. It examines one response to poststructuralist critiques that PAR either elides power relations or conversely can be equated to tyranny, namely a proposal to view PAR as a form of governance. Spatialising PAR then draws attention to the reach and relational workings of power. Counter‐topography is discussed as a conceptualisation by which PAR can jump scales to inform theory. Prefiguring the social justice imperative with which it is invested, the potential of practising PAR as an ethics of care is explored. Consideration is given to how PAR's imperative for social change shapes the researcher's responsibilities vis‐à‐vis representation, political strategy and emotional engagement. Tensions between PAR's social change imperative, the needs of research partners and the institutional constrains of academia are a through‐going theme. I conclude that PAR has much to offer research in human geography and, in turn, that work in human geography has provided PAR with space‐relational strategies of engaging with power, which do not preclude emancipatory action.