Shared Participatory Research Principles and Methodologies: Perspectives from the USA and Brazil-45 Years after Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed".

Renata de Toledo,Cláudia Bógus,Nina Wallerstein,Rosilda Mendes,Shelley Frazier,Sonia Acioli,Marco Akerman,Marita Jones,Pedro Jacobi,Leandro Giatti,Margaret Bluehorse-Anderson

doi:10.3390/soc7020006

Abstract

The trajectory of participation in health research by community social actors worldwide has been built on a history of community participation from the Ottawa Charter Health Promotion call for community mobilization, to the emancipatory educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, to social movements and organizing for health and social justice. This paper builds on this history to expand our global knowledge about community participation in research through a dialogue between experiences and contexts in two prominent countries in this approach; the United States and Brazil. We first focus on differences in political and scientific contexts, financing, and academic perspectives and then present how, despite these differences, similarities exist in values and collaborative methodologies aimed at engaging community partners in democratizing science and knowledge construction. We present three case studies, one from the U.S. and two from Brazil, which illustrate similar multi-level processes using participatory research tools and Freirian dialogue to contribute to social mobilization, community empowerment, and the transformation of inequitable societal conditions. Despite different processes of evolution, we observed a convergence of participatory health research strategies and values that can transform science in our commitment to reduce health and social inequities and improve community wellbeing.

Highlights

Since the Ottawa Charter in 1986, community mobilization has been adopted worldwide as a core health promotion strategy, building on multiple World Health Organization documents, including the 1978 Declaration of Alma Ata
The two examples from Brazil illustrate some contemporary features of carrying out participatory research in this country, including the facilitators and challenges in the interactions between researchers, funders, managers, and local social actors
While the majority of funding sources still do not cover participatory processes, there remains a strong influence of Ottawa Charter concepts, including community mobilization, within health promotion research

Summary

Introduction

Since the Ottawa Charter in 1986, community mobilization has been adopted worldwide as a core health promotion strategy, building on multiple World Health Organization documents, including the 1978 Declaration of Alma Ata. Research-action, fits well within the Freirian-based social movement of “popular education for health” Despite these different country contexts, an emerging perspective of shared principles, dialogical methodologies (often based on Paulo Freire’s writings), and goals to address power differentials has emerged. First Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy in June 2017 in Cartagena, Colombia [6] It was in Cartagena where Orlando Fals-Borda, one of the original founders of the Southern tradition, hosted the first international symposium on action research forty years previously [7]. We will discuss the potential for convergence in the emerging international community of CBPR and participatory action researchers who share principles, theories, methods, and intended outcomes of democratized knowledge and social justice. Mini-case studies will add to the dialogue to strengthen thinking on the processes and impacts of participatory research that can be generalized across countries, even as we act within our own specific national contexts

United States Context

Brazil Context

Medicine

Findings

Discussion and Conclusions