Participatory Action Research

Abstract

Abstract Participatory Action Research (PAR) models are increasingly used in disciplines such as social sciences and health to actively engage people with lived experiences as co-researchers and act on findings to improve their lives. In recent years, the potential of PAR to yield meaningful benefits via collaborative research activities with people who are multiply marginalized and excluded from dominant forms of knowledge production has gained more recognition. This rise in popularity calls for in-depth discussions about contemporary methodological issues and taken-for-granted principles that can yield tokenistic outcomes and ethical dilemmas. What do genuine participation and research co-production look like when co-researchers are actively involved in data collection, analysis, and sharing? How do we address ethical issues when projects and relationships become problematic and messy? In addition to answering these questions, this book repositions PAR as an intersectional decolonial methodology and an effective tool to disrupt harmful western or Eurocentric research frameworks in favor of approaches such as Indigenous PAR. It outlines how intersectional feminist principles enrich PAR and honor diverse gender expressions to address enduring inequalities rather than reinforce colonial, elitist, and transphobic notions of feminism. The discussion on influencing policymaking using PAR findings points to the importance of effective knowledge translation plans and intersectional feminist policy analysis frameworks. Using reflexive vignettes from diverse participatory researchers, this book provides practical and conceptual insights into the politics of PAR and its potential to yield new possibilities for individual, community, and policy change when participatory approaches are used in collaborative and ethical ways.