The SAGE Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry

Danny Burns, Jo Howard, Sonia M. Ospina, Danny Burns, Jo Howard, Sonia M. Ospina, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781526440501
• eBook ISBN: 9781529766219
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

This SAGE Handbook presents contemporary, cutting-edge approaches to participatory research and inquiry. It has been designed for the community of researchers, professionals and activists engaged in interventions and action for social transformation, and for readers interested in understanding the state of the art in this domain. The Handbook offers an overview of different influences on participatory research, explores in detail how to address critical issues and design effective participatory research processes, and provides detailed accounts of how to use a wide range of participatory research methods. Chapters cover pioneering new participatory research techniques  including methods that can be operationalised at scale, approaches to engaging the poorest and most marginalised, and ways of harnessing technologies to increase the scope of participation, amongst others.

Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines, and bringing together contributing authors from across the globe, this Handbook will be of interest to an international readership from across the broad spectrum of social sciences, including social policy, development studies, geography, sociology, criminology, political science, health and social care, education, psychology, business & management. It will also be an insightful and practical resource for facilitators, community workers, and activists for social change.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Key Influences and Foundations of Participatory Research

Part 3: Critical Issues in the Practice of Participatory Research

Part 4: Methods and Tools

Part 4.1: Dialogic and Deliberative Processes

Part 4.2: Digital Technologies in Participatory Research

Part 4.3: Participatory Forms of Action Orientated Research

Part 4.4: Visual and Performative Methods
 
Part 4.5: Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning 

Part 4.6: Mixing and Mashing Participatory and Formal Research

Part 5: Final Reflections

Part I Introduction

Sonia M. Ospina, Danny Burns and Jo Howard

1 Introduction to the Handbook: Navigating the Complex and Dynamic Landscape of Participatory Research and Inquiry

Sonia M. Ospina, Danny Burns and Jo Howard

The world is quite different today than it was almost four years ago, when we started working on the handbook you have in your hands. Even then there was an urgency to offer a knowledge source that would articulate a comprehensive exposition of different participatory research methods specifically oriented to support processes of social transformation. Today the urgency seems even greater.

We are bringing this book to completion at a time of global upheaval. The social disruptions and the suffering of millions of persons during the COVID-19 pandemic represent only one of several traumatic realities within which this handbook comes to fruition. Add to it the emergence of populism with its denial and distortion of truth; the ideological shift to the right in many countries in the global North and South, with the accompanying wave of political turmoil and resistance from below; the increased recurrence of natural disasters – fires, hurricanes, thawing poles and heightened sea levels – associated with climate change; the exponential growth and use of digital technology with the consequent spectre of cyber-insecurity, and the increased levels of inequality and exclusion.

These, among others, are the realities humanity faces today, within which participatory processes in general, and participatory research processes in particular, emerge and must be understood. We will return to the existential dilemmas implied for participatory research and inquiry in Chapters 2 and 71. Suffice it to say here that we view participatory research and inquiry as meaningful instruments that serve two critical purposes: on the one hand, they promote participation and engagement of those who experience the social problems studied and who often represent excluded and historically marginalized communities; and on the other hand, they can develop actionable knowledge and praxis to foster and support broader groups, communities and social movements engaged in social change processes that aspire to materialize an inclusive and just society.

We are thus pleased to present this Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry. The handbook aims to articulate a wide range of pioneering and cutting-edge perspectives, as well as some innovative mainstream approaches, methods and techniques – in other words, what we see as the state of the art at the current time. Developed over the past decades, these perspectives and approaches reflect the work of a community of researchers, professionals and activists engaged in research that is both participatory and intrinsically linked to interventions and action for social transformation.

Section 1 of the handbook consists of two introductory chapters. This first one offers a map of what you will find in the two volumes of the handbook. We introduce here the landscape of participatory research from a bird's eye perspective, and explain the rationale used to construct the handbook's structure and to curate the chapter contributions. In Chapter 2 we go deeper into what we consider important conversations taking place in this landscape, exploring and elaborating on three challenges presently confronted by the practice of participatory research. At the end of the handbook, in Chapter 71, we return to these, elaborating on what we learned from the handbook contributions, and suggesting some implications for where we go from here.

In these first introductory chapters we also articulate and make transparent our own positions as editors vis-a-vis the concepts and debates around participatory research and inquiry. Since this is a very diverse and contested landscape, we hope that making clear where we are coming from will help the reader better navigate the chapters and the logic of their inclusion in one of the five handbook sections.

The Handbook's Purpose and Rationale

The purpose of this handbook is to provide the reader with a resource to explore in detail how to design robust participatory research and inquiry, and how to use its methods effectively. Our aim is to give a clear exposition of concepts and methods and an exploration of practice dilemmas in such a way as to enable readers to actually use them.

Our own research and teaching over several decades have helped us to identify a ‘gap’ which we intend this book to fill. That is, a resource which offers the reader access to both the conceptual foundations of participatory research, and a comprehensive ‘how to’ guide. We have therefore sought to compile a handbook that includes both the deeper political and ethical questions of participatory research, and gives facilitators enough detail to try out any of the featured methods. We also needed to reflect the explosion of methodological innovation over the past 20 years, and the methodological possibilities opened up by the widening availability of new technologies and the shortening of the distance among participatory research practitioners around the world. The development of knowledge in other fields has also opened up new avenues for participatory research. One example is intersectionality and its implications for inclusive participatory practice. Another is systems thinking and complexity theory, which have matured to give us a better understanding of the nature of social change, and can inform our action-oriented participatory methodologies.

Volume 1 offers a conceptual map of the PR landscape, including discussions of where the practice is today (Section 1), the current issues and debates characterizing it (Section 2, edited by Ospina) and its foundations and key influences (Section 3, edited by Howard and Burns). It then introduces the first two subsections of Section 4 of the handbook (4.1 edited by de Santibañes; 4.2 edited by Roberts), which feature specific methods and tools that have been developed and used successfully over the years. Chapters in this section, starting in Volume 1 and continuing into Volume 2, include a step-by-step description of the featured method or tool and an exemplar of how and in what context it was used (4.3 edited by Ortiz Aragón and Brydon-Miller; 4.4 edited by Lewin and Shaw; 4.5 edited by Apgar and Allen; and 4.6 edited by Oosterhoff).

Our aspiration is that both new and experienced researchers interested in a particular application of PR can choose chapters from Section 4 in the handbook and, upon locating what they search for, retrieve very practical (conceptually framed) advice to implement the method or tool on their own. To make the best use of this how-to, step-by-step resource, readers can draw on Sections 1–3 to understand key conversations and debates around core issues, as well as influences and foundations that support today's participatory research practice. They will also find in both volumes important critiques and departures from tradition that reflect a dynamic community of practitioners recurrently innovating. The specifics of this structure will be described towards the end of this chapter, once we have shared the philosophical, conceptual and practical groundings that supported our editorial project.

Why Participatory Research and Inquiry

The phrase ‘Participatory Research and Inquiry’ (PR&I from here on) is meant to represent the broadest conceptual umbrella covering a variety of research and inquiry practices, methods and tools. Research is always about ‘inquiry'. As an approach to learning, inquiry involves an exploration of the world by way of asking questions, discovering and testing answers in the search for new understanding. This is the familiar terrain of the participatory researcher.

Practitioners who may not view themselves as ‘researchers’ are also making very important contributions to the practice of participatory research through social interventions anchored in participatory commitments. While not necessarily aspiring to generate public knowledge, they understand and value the reciprocal causality between inquiry, learning, efficacy and agentic social transformation. Not defined as ‘formal research', nevertheless the participatory inquiry practices used follow rigorous and systematic procedures. Their aim is to construct spaces where groups can learn what they need in order to engage in collective problem solving within a participatory and often emancipatory ethos. We include a selection of this important work in the handbook because it contributes to the two goals articulated above.

Ultimately, we look at participatory research and inquiry in a very common-sense way. It involves finding out about things, making sense of what we find out, and acting on that knowledge. This book then, is about the ways in which people can gain knowledge and understanding of the issues that affect their lives and turn those into action to improve their lives.

In this handbook, we make an important distinction between participatory research more generally, and action-oriented research, which we treat as a subset of the wider field of participatory research. Participatory research includes all processes where evidence is gathered and analysed in a participatory way. It may or may not integrate action into the knowledge generation process as AR and PAR do. The latter are defined by an iterative (cyclical) relationship between action on the one hand, and evidence gathering and meaning making on the other (research). Here, action is rooted in what is being learned, and what is being learned is rooted in action.

Other forms of participatory research might engage participants extensively in identifying questions, collecting data and collectively analysing. These typically produce outputs that demonstrate the need for social change and/or influence others to act. While decoupling the research from the action, this approach can nevertheless be both participative and oriented towards action. Many of the examples in this book correspond to this model. This distinction also points to the fact that, depending on their institutional location, some PR&I approaches may yield more action-oriented projects and products, and others more research-oriented ones, that is, some are more interventionist and others more academic, respectively (Ospina and Anderson, 2014).

Linking Participation, Participatory Methods and Participatory Research Methods

This handbook is about participatory research, not participation per se. There are many debates about the merits and challenges of different processes of democratic participation and movement building, from coproduction (see e.g. Ostrom, 1996; Pestoff, 2018), civic engagement (Skocpol and Fiorina, 2004; Verba, 1967), community participation (Mayo, 2000; Taylor, 2007) through to deliberative democracy and empowerment tradition (Dryzek et al., 2019; Elstub and Escobar, 2019; Fischer, 2003). The chapters in this handbook necessarily engage with these questions, since participatory research can be a central component of democratic processes and movements. However, what is distinct in this book is our concern with the relationship between research, inquiry and action.

Three interrelated but distinct constructs must therefore be differentiated when defining the nature of PR&I: participation, participatory methods and participatory research methods. This handbook is about the third construct, but it is conceptually embedded in the other two. PR&I is grounded in a firm belief about the value and benefits of participation; it also rests on a strong commitment to supporting participatory methods that help regular people – neighbours, immigrants, citizens, service recipients – to become active participants and perform significant roles in the processes and decisions affecting their lives, assertively confronting social exclusion and inequality.

We firmly believe in a concept of participation and participatory strategies that aim to engage social actors – particularly those who have been historically marginalized and excluded – so that they can fully understand, manage ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The SAGE Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry
• Contents
• Dedication
• Notes on the Editors and Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Introduction
• 1 Introduction to the Handbook: Navigating the Complex and Dynamic Landscape of Participatory Research and Inquiry
• 2 Challenges in the Practice of Participatory Research and Inquiry
• Part 2 Key Influences and Foundations of Participatory Research
• 3 Section Introduction: Key Influences and Foundations of Participatory Research
• 4 Paulo Freire's Influence on Participatory Action Research
• 5 Tropical Empathy: Orlando Fals Borda and Participatory Action Research
• 6 Theatre is Knowledge: Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and Participatory Research
• 7 Pragmatism: Linking Systems, Evolution, and Democratization in Participatory and Action Research
• 8 Feminism and Participatory Research: Exploring Intersectionality, Relationships, and Voice in Participatory Research from a Feminist Perspective
• 9 Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Participatory Research
• 10 The History, Legacy and Future of Participatory Rural Appraisal
• 11 Achieving Scope and Broad Participation in Participatory Research: The ‘Dialogue Democratic’ Network-based Approach of Bjørn Gustavsen
• 12 Becoming Participatory: Some Contributions to Action Research in the UK
• 13 Towards Ever More Extended Epistemologies: Pluriversality and Decolonisation of Knowledges in Participatory Inquiry
• 14 Action Research – Participative Self in Transformative Action
• Part 3 Critical Issues in the Practice of Participatory Research
• 15 Section Introduction: Critical Issues in the Practice of Participatory Research
• 16 Facilitating Participatory Research
• 17 Reflexivity and Reflection in Action Research: ‘To Locate, Again, a Through Line to the Future'1
• 18 Positionality, Academic Research and Cooperative Inquiry: Lessons from Participatory Research with Roma
• 19 The Fine Art of Getting Lost: Ethics as a Guide to Transformative Learning in Participatory Research
• 20 Holding Space for Emotions in Participatory Action Research: Reflections from the Experiences of a Youth Organisation Exploring PAR through Creative Practices
• 21 Power Analysis for Social Change: Participatory Learning and Action
• 22 The Ethics of Co-production in Practice: Reflections
• 23 Approaches and Creative Research Methods with Children and Youth
• 24 Don't Leave Us Out: Disability Inclusive Participatory Research – Why and How?
• 25 Interpeace's Experience with Participatory Action Research in Conflict and Post-conflict Contexts
• Part 4 Methods and Tools: Part 4.1 Dialogic and Deliberative Processes
• 26 Section Introduction: Reflections on the Role of Dialogue in Participatory Research and Inquiry
• 27 Reflections on the Reflect Approach and its Multiple Evolutions
• 28 A Dialogical Approach to Knowledge: Grassroots Experiences from the South of Mexico
• 29 Feeling-Body-Thinking Approach and Methodologies: Towards Transformations in Intercultural Justice
• 30 Art of Hosting Frameworks and Methods as Participatory Research
• 31 Cooperative Inquiry as Dialogic Process
• 32 Creating Spaces for Participatory Social Learning and Change with Young People
• 33 Influencing Global Policy Processes through Participatory Approaches
• Part 4.2 Digital Technologies in Participatory Research
• 34 Section Introduction: Digital Affordances in Participatory Research Methods
• 35 Technologies for Citizen Inquiry: Participatory Research in Online Communities
• 36 Interactive Radio as a Participatory Digital Research Method
• 37 Writing Women into Wikipedia
• 38 Real-time Statistics: Working towards Community Participation with Mobile Data Collection in Oxfam
• 39 Participatory Digital Mapping as a Research Method
• Part 4.3 Action-Oriented Forms of Participatory Research
• 40 Section Introduction: Show me the Action! Understanding Action as a Way of Knowing in Participatory Research
• 41 Tools for Action: Media Research as Collaborative Action Research
• 42 Memorialab: Dialogue, Memory and Social Healing in the Basque Country: A Methodological Note
• 43 A Participatory Self-in-Field Inquiry Method
• 44 The ‘Action’ Turn: People Praxis
• 45 Awareness-based Action Research: Making Systems Sense and See Themselves
• 46 Storytelling as Participatory Research
• 47 Community Based Participatory Research: Embracing Praxis for Transformation
• 48 Research, Organizing and Policy Change: Methods and Lessons on the Path from Participatory Action Research to a Right to Counsel in New York City
• 49 The Role of Collective Analysis in Generating Ownership and Action in Systemic Action Research
• Part 4.4 Visual and Performative Methods
• 50 Section Introduction: Collective Becoming: Visual and Performative Methodologies for Participatory Research
• 51 Arpilleras as Participatory Research
• 52 Digital Story Telling and Researching Women's Empowerment in Bangladesh
• 53 Photovoice
• 54 Asset Mapping as a Participatory Research Approach
• 55 Theatre for Development as a Participatory Research Tool
• 56 The Method of Enactment and the Framework of Design: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Participatory Research
• 57 Extended Participatory Video Processes
• Part 4.5 Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
• 58 Section Introduction: Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: Taking Stock and Breaking New Ground
• 59 Promoting Adaptive Programming through Outcome Mapping: The ‘Resilient Adolescents in the Syria Crisis’ Programme
• 60 The Most Significant Change Technique (MSC): A Case Study of How MSC Helps Communities Unpack Intangible Outcomes
• 61 Participatory Theory of Change: Reflecting on Multiple Views of How Change Happens
• 62 Can Voices at Scale Really be Heard? Reflections from Ten Years of Innovation with SenseMaker1
• 63 Ripple Effects Mapping: A Participatory Strategy for Measuring Program Impacts
• 64 Reality Check Approach; Immersion Research
• Part 4.6 Mixing and Mashing Participatory and other Research Methods
• 65 Section Introduction: Mixing and Mashing Participatory and other Research Methods
• 66 Mixed Participatory and Formal Methods in Studying Violence towards Men Who Have Sex with Men in Viet Nam
• 67 Transitional Ethnic Female Bodies and Kaleidoscopic Methodologies: Participatory Research, Feminist Geographies and Multi-sited Ethnography
• 68 Participatory Research in Healthcare:The Potential of PLA in Building Community-based Primary Healthcare
• 69 Building in Complementarity: Participatory Mixed Methods in Research, Monitoring and Learning in Modern Slavery in India
• 70 Participatory Network Research: Using Visual Methods and Participatory Statistics for Value Chain Analysis
• Part 5 Final Reflections
• 71 Participatory Research and the Need for Transformations in a World in Crisis
• Index