What is participatory research?
Participatory research is a collaborative approach to research that emphasizes the importance of community guidance of, and participation in, the research process. Participatory research has roots in two traditions one of “action research,” a form of research dedicated to specific changes within a larger system, and the other of larger social change, embedded in the popular education and emancipatory work of Paolo Friere in Brazil, and the Highlander Center in the United States. Participatory research has three overlapping components: the collective investigation of problems by the constituency and the researcher; the collective analysis of the issues by the researcher and the constituency, including looking for underlying structural causes; and collective action to solve the problems. In participatory research, the community is empowered through a process in which researchers and community members come to the table as equal participants to examine and address multifaceted problems. Th
