Participatory Research

Finally, we are able to discuss the actual topic of this blog – the participatory research approach. In the previous posts, I have discussed the theory that has led up to this point; the inadequacy of the positivistic approach, and the essentially social nature of human activity. However, before a discussion on what participatory research is, a definition of what participation is must be established.

There are many definitions of ‘participation’ to be found, but for the purpose of this report, participation shall be defined as “people’s involvement in decision making about what should be done and how, in implementation of the project, in sharing in the benefits of a project, and in evaluation of the project”.

Participatory research has emerged as an alternative to positivistic systems of knowledge production by challenging some of the core values of the traditional, mainstream, social science research methodology. The core values that participatory challenges are the belief in researchers must be neutral, objective, and value-free. Rather, the practitioners of the participatory research approach recognise average people as researchers themselves; researchers in pursuit of answers to the questions of their daily lives, and their own problems. In addition, research projects and strategies which place emphasis on participation are gaining increasing respect and attention, primarily in health research, in both developed and developing nations. In traditional research, such as that conducted within the positivistic domain, it is too often the case that the conclusions and recommendations made have been inappropriate to the context; the main cause of this is the failure to take into account the local priorities, processes and perspectives.  In stark contrast, the participatory approach places emphasis on a ‘bottom-up’ approach where there is a focus on locally defined priorities and local perspectives. This involvement of local people as participants in the research process has been shown to enhance the effectiveness of the research as well as to save money and time in the long term.

As participatory research places such an emphasis on the ‘local’, it is no surprise that the methods used in participatory research are designed to bring the researcher to understand the specific qualities of a given context or person and the experiences, issues, and problems that are unique to that context or person. What is meant by the term ‘understand’ in the previous statement is that the researcher gains knowledge of an individual’s life, or even a situation in specific community, so that the researcher’s perspectives, in a sense, becomes that of the research participants. In other words, the methods designed for, and used in, participatory research attempt to maximise the empathy of the researcher.

Practitioners of the participatory research approach make use of some core concepts, such as, but not limited to: conscientization, control and empowerment, local knowledge, praxis (research as action) and context. The next posts will encompass some of these core concepts and will discuss how they are useful and essential to participatory research.