Browsing by Author "Tondon, Rajesh"

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    Action research, participatory research, and the political economy of inquiry
    (1982) Brown, L. David; Tondon, Rajesh
    This paper by L. David Brown and Rajesh Tandon compares traditions of applied behavioural science research, action research and participatory research, and how each is shaped by values, ideology and political economy. Two cases anchor the comparison: a joint study of stress-related "sore arm" complaints at a United States electronics plant, and a citizen-led study of land ownership in Appalachia. Both traditions aim for useful knowledge and developmental change. But action research works through individual and group analysis within a consensus view of organizations, while participatory research works through societal and conflict analysis centred on oppression and unequal resources. A political economy framework carries the comparison further, covering problem definition, data collection and analysis, and how results get used, showing how authority and resources are distributed differently in each tradition. Three hypotheses follow, on when each approach fits and how each might spread across Western and Third World settings. The authors conclude that ideological and political economic differences will likely keep the two traditions apart, despite their shared roots in dissatisfaction with conventional social science.
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    Civil society and construction of knowledge systems
    (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1997-06-01) Tondon, Rajesh
    Modern systems of knowledge have largely been shaped by the state and the market, yet both have left little room for the lived realities of ordinary people. This paper positions civil society as a third arena in which knowledge is generated, one grounded not in abstract theory but in everyday practice, collective memory, and problem-solving. It argues that knowledge forms such as oral, experiential, intergenerational etc, are vital to understanding social life, even as they remain marginalized by formal institutions. By contrasting these dynamics with the dominant knowledge systems of state and corporate actors, the study opens up new questions about how knowledge is produced, legitimized, and used in society.