Caroline Lenette - Böcker

Participatory Action Research (PAR) privileges the involvement of participants as co-researchers to generate new knowledge and act on findings to effect social change. In PAR projects, academic researchers collaborate closely with co-researchers, working from the idea that these individuals, especially those who are usually marginalized from institutions, can be engaged in meaningful research activities to achieve social justice outcomes in addition to answering research questions. When deployed ethically in collaboration with co-researchers, PAR's participatory element facilitates a 'bottom-up' approach where knowledge is co-created through grassroots or community-based activities. This book goes beyond a PAR 'how to' manual on the methodology. Rather it synthesizes key learnings in contemporary research, with a distinct focus on the challenging aspects of undertaking PAR in practice and strategies to address these. It provides a clear and user-friendly collection of practical and contextual examples and presents key pointers on the implications of PAR methods, their strengths and weaknesses, and strategies for the field. These examples will be useful for critical class discussions, as well as to anticipate fieldwork pitfalls and pre-empt challenges through collaborative approaches.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) privileges the involvement of participants as co-researchers to generate new knowledge and act on findings to effect social change. In PAR projects, academic researchers collaborate closely with co-researchers, working from the idea that these individuals, especially those who are usually marginalized from institutions, can be engaged in meaningful research activities to achieve social justice outcomes in addition to answering research questions. When deployed ethically in collaboration with co-researchers, PAR's participatory element facilitates a 'bottom-up' approach where knowledge is co-created through grassroots or community-based activities. This book goes beyond a PAR 'how to' manual on the methodology. Rather it synthesizes key learnings in contemporary research, with a distinct focus on the challenging aspects of undertaking PAR in practice and strategies to address these. It provides a clear and user-friendly collection of practical and contextual examples and presents key pointers on the implications of PAR methods, their strengths and weaknesses, and strategies for the field. These examples will be useful for critical class discussions, as well as to anticipate fieldwork pitfalls and pre-empt challenges through collaborative approaches.

This book firmly positions lived experience-led expertise as a unique and compelling form of knowledge in decolonising and disrupting research, teaching and advocacy. Based on the insights of people with first-hand experiences, each chapter presents unique accounts and reflections on a diverse range of social justice issues. Together, the authors’ perspectives centre lived experiences in the production of knowledge, challenge outsider-imposed views, and create new research and writing norms. They demonstrate that, when lived experience experts lead the way, their knowledge of how to address social injustices can enrich, transform and decolonise research, teaching and advocacy.This collection is an invaluable resource for academic and community-based researchers, practitioners, advocates, educators, policy makers, students and people whose lived experiences and views continue to be marginalised across diverse settings.

This book firmly positions lived experience-led expertise as a unique and compelling form of knowledge in decolonising and disrupting research, teaching and advocacy. Based on the insights of people with first-hand experiences, each chapter presents unique accounts and reflections on a diverse range of social justice issues. Together, the authors’ perspectives centre lived experiences in the production of knowledge, challenge outsider-imposed views, and create new research and writing norms. They demonstrate that, when lived experience experts lead the way, their knowledge of how to address social injustices can enrich, transform and decolonise research, teaching and advocacy.This collection is an invaluable resource for academic and community-based researchers, practitioners, advocates, educators, policy makers, students and people whose lived experiences and views continue to be marginalised across diverse settings.

How can anti-colonial research methodologies be transformative and achieve knowledge justice? This book brings together leading scholars from around the world to share methodological knowledge grounded in First Nations and majority-world expertise and wisdom. The authors challenge western-centric and colonial approaches to knowledge production, redefining the possibilities of what we can achieve through social research.The First Nations and majority-world perspectives highlighted here share a common aim of disrupting established beliefs about research methodologies and unquestioned norms in the academy. Authors in this edited collection describe how they draw on Indigenous knowledge systems, feminist frameworks and creative methodologies as forms of anti-colonial research praxis. Spanning development studies, geography, education, sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian studies and social work, the authors reflexively discuss the specific factors shaping how they engage in research ethically. The book reimagines social research through an anti-colonial lens, concluding with a set of provocations for anti-colonial research praxis that situate this important work in the context of ongoing colonial violence and institutional constraints.This book is an essential guide for researchers and scholars within and beyond the academy on how anti-colonial research praxis can produce meaningful outcomes, especially in violent and troubled times.Cover art courtesy of Tawny Chatmon