What do you understand by participatory research?

Posted by davidson on Jan.20, 2011, under Career

The key features of participatory research are:

People are the subjects of research: the dichotomy between subject and object is broken

People themselves collect the data and then process and analyze the information using methods easily understood by them

The knowledge generated is used to promote actions for change or to improve existing local actions

The knowledge belongs to the people and they are the primary beneficiaries of the knowledge creation

Research and action are inseparable – they represent a unity

research is a praxis rhythm of action-reflection where knowledge creation supports action

People function as organic intellectuals

there is an built-in mechanism to ensure authenticity and genuineness of the information that is generated because people themselves use the information for life improvement.

Such participatory research may not get written up. Oral and visual methods characterize this process of knowledge creation. If people can be stimulated to write them up in their own idiom then such research could be an important source of a people’s literature, and reading materials for a wider public.

Some of the material could be translated into pictures, cartoons, graphics, posters and slogans which may be a more effective method of communication. Such documentation may be carried out by community activists who are well placed to articulate the community’s way of thinking.

The key processes of Participatory Research

The promotion of participatory research is basically an exercise in stimulating the people to:

Collect information reflect and analyse it

Use the results as a knowledge base for life improvement, and

whenever possible, to document the results for wider dissemination ie for the creation of a people’s literature.