Collaborating for Change

Susan Greenbaum is a retired professor of anthropology and member of the Sociological Initiatives board. She is the author of More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa and Blaming the Poor:The Long Shadow of the Moynihan Report on Cruel Images about Poverty (Rutgers University Press). She lives in Tampa, Florida.  Glenn Jacobs is a retired professor of sociology. He is the author of Charles Horton Cooley: Imagining Social Reality. He is a founding member and president of the Sociological Initiatives Foundation. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.  Prentice Zinn is a director of GMA Foundations, a philanthropic services organization based in Boston, Massachusetts.

"The dismantling of the public sector over the past three decades has meant that even as universities proclaimed their commitment to civic engagement, community-based courses often ended up trying to compensate for the loss of essential services, rather than challenging the status quo.  Now comes this collection, which demonstrates that when academics collaborate with grassroots activists who are committed to progressive social change, and when they embrace egalitarian research methods, genuine transformation is possible. I highly recommend it for anyone who is involved in university-community partnerships."  — Susan B. Hyatt, co-editor of Learning Under Neoliberalism: Ethnographies of Governance in Higher Education"The greatest strength of this casebook is that it includes numerous rich, detailed examples that illustrate PAR processes, including their strengths and contributions as well as challenges and obstacles. Each chapter is co-authored and focuses on a PAR process funded by the SIF. For those hungry for examples, this casebook is a feast."— Contemporary Sociology"Each part of Collaborating for Change presents participatory action research from different communities and with different goals. What connects them is a shared rejection of the notion that academic research and community organizing are separate, and in fact, they show that blurring the lines between these practices strengthens each....While the findings they present are supported by the data and, while every research project led to significant policy changes, [some] succeeded beyond this [and] most clearly captured the power of praxis in language new researchers can absorb."— AnthroSource"Collaborating for Change is an invigorating how-to on forging solidarity across activist and academic divides, a blueprint for turning visions of a better world into reality with a step-by-stepaccounting of what works on the frontlines in the struggle for social justice. In a new twist on "thinking global, acting local," this powerful and instructive volume illustrates the magic thathappens when committed, thoughtful people bring their special knowledge and expertise to bear on a common goal."— Alisse Waterston, author with illustrator Charlotte Hollands, of the forthcoming graphic book, Light in Dark Times: Th"Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook is a particularly timely publication considering the influx in momentum for social justice movements during 2020....[A] quality overview of PAR as an epistemology and method, but its true value lies in the real world examples of how collaborating for change has played out and created co- benefits for researchers, activists, organizations, and communities."— Rural Sociology"Pedagogy in Participatory Action Research," by Prentice Zinn— Footnotes

• IntroductionSUSAN D. GREENBAUM1 The Epistemology and Hybridity of Participatory Action Research: What and Whose Truth Is It?GLENN JACOBSPart I Social Justice Organizing3 The Activist Class Cultures Project: Helping Activists Become More Class InclusiveBETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT4 Fighting Antihomeless Laws and the Criminalization of Poverty through Participatory Action ResearchLISA MARIE ALATORRE, BILAL ALI, JENNIFER FRIEDENBACH, CHRIS HERRING, T. J. JOHNSTON, AND DILARA YARBROUGH5 Organizers and Academics Together: The Household Energy Security Crisis and Utility Justice OrganizingJONATHAN BIX, WILLIAM HOYNES, AND PEGGY KAHNPart II Worker Rights Activism6 Shaping Organizing Strategy and Public Policy for an Invisible Workforce: Restaurant Opportunities Center VERONICA AVILA, CHRISTINA FLETES-ROMO, AND TEÓFILO REYES7 Worker-Led Research Makes the Case for Labor Justice for Massachusetts Domestic Workers: Social Research and Social Change at the GrassrootsTIM SIEBER AND NATALICIA TRACY8 Power Sharing through Participatory Action Research with a Latino Forest Worker CommunityVICTORIA BRECKWICH VÁSQUEZ, DIANE BUSH, AND CARL WILMSEN9 Making Injustice Visible: National Day Laborer Organizing Network's Research and ActionPABLO ALVARADO, CHRIS NEWMAN, BLISS REQUA-TRAUTZ, AND NIK THEODORE10 Milking Research for Social Change: Immigrant Dairy Farmworkers in Upstate New YorkCARLY FOX, REBECCA FUENTES, FABIOLA ORTIZ VALDEZ, GRETCHEN PURSER, AND KATHLEEN SEXSMITH11 Building a Better Texas: Participatory Research Wins for Texas WorkersRICH HEYMAN AND EMILY TIMMPart III Language, Literacy, and Heritage12 Mobilizing and Organizing Nimiipuu to Protect the Environment: Fighting to Protect Ancestral Lands in IdahoLEONTINA HORMEL, JULIAN MATTHEWS, ELLIOTT MOFFETT, CHRIS NORDEN, AND LUCINDA SIMPSON13 Building Future Language Leaders in a Participatory Action Research ModelROBERT ELLIOTT AND JANNE UNDERRINER14 Conclusion: Linking Research to Social ActionPRENTICE ZINN, SUSAN D. GREENBAUM, AND GLENN JACOBSNotes on ContributorsAbout the FoundationIndex