Community Knowledge

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1071

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mobilizing community and academic knowledge for transformative change: The story of the UNESCO Chair in community based research and social responsibility in higher education
    (The Canadian Commission for UNESCO’s IdeaLab, 2017) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh
    What role can higher education play in advancing knowledge democracy and fulfilling its social responsibility? This paper co-authored by Dr. Budd L. Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon reflects the establishment, evolution, and contributions of the UNESCO chair in community-based research and social responsibility in higher education. Established in July 2012 as a unique co-chair partnership bridging the University of Victoria (Canada) and Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA, India). This paper outlines the effectiveness of a distinctive global North-South co-chair method in connecting academic institutions with grassroots practitioners to promote knowledge and democracy. The paper explores how universities should collaborate with communities in the co-creation of knowledge to promote social responsibility, inclusion, and sustainable development. Through its three core domains, knowledge mobilization, policy advocacy, and capacity building, the chair has generated substantial, systemic impact. Through global reports, policy dialogues, and training programs, the Chair has influenced higher education policy, fostered international networks, and contributed to embedding engagement and participatory research into the everyday functions of universities. This paper demonstrates how universities can contribute to social change by working closely with communities, promoting sustainable development, and strengthening their social responsibility.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research
    (UNESCO, 1979) Hall, Budd L
    What is knowledge? How is it formed? Who has the authority to “make” it? and who does it ultimately serve? These are the central questions Dr. Budd Hall raises in this article. He critiques the way traditional intellectuals such as scientists and scholars, often trained in elite universities and supported by international funding agencies, are institutionally positioned as the legitimate producers of knowledge. Embedded within particular class locations, this group often produces knowledge that serves its own class interests and maintains dominant social relations. In this process, organic intellectuals engaged in critical reflection and grassroots organising are sidelined as knowledge makers. Drawing on the works of Freire, Mao and others, Hall reflects on the role of intellectuals. He advances a systematic critique of survey research and outlines the guiding principles of participatory research. The article is a critical inquiry into the nature of knowledge within the new international order. It calls for moving beyond viewing knowledge as intellectual commodities such as papers and conferences and toward recognising and valuing local and indigenous knowledge systems, while developing more decentralised ways of legitimising people as producers of knowledge.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly? Participatory Research in Development
    (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1982-06) Hall, Budd L; Gillete, Arthur; Tandon, Rajesh
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    ‘A giant human hashtag’: Learning and the #occupy movement
    (2011) Hall, Budd L
    How do forms of learning evolve in social movements? In this chapter, Dr. Budd L. Hall discusses the pedagogical significance of the ways in which learning takes place both within a movement and as a result of it. Taking the case of the Occupy Movement, which he considers one of the most important social movements of the twentieth and twenty first centuries in rich countries, Hall highlights the synchronised scale with which it aligned purpose and process. Viewing every participant as both a learner and a teacher, he reflects on how the organising structure of the movement differed from preceding movements against global capitalism. He discusses several defining characteristics of the movement, including collective thinking, direct democracy, decentralised leadership, and the creation of new forms of knowledge. Hall also emphasises the important role played by social media platforms as spaces of knowledge creation and dissemination. In developing his argument, he draws extensively on tweets shared under hashtags such as #Occupy, #OccupyMovement, and #OWS, among others. Through this exploration, Hall demonstrates how social movement learning holds transformative potential at both theoretical and practical levels, showing how the two remain in sustained dialogue within movements like Occupy.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Perspectives on community practices: Living and learning in community
    (Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, 2015) Krašovec, Sabina Jelenc; Štefanc, Damijan; Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, Wafa
    This book presents the findings of the 2015 European Society for Research on the Education of Adults conference and brings together a rich collection of research that explores how communities learn, organise, resist and transform across varied contexts. It covers themes such as adult learning and wellbeing, intergenerational spaces of experience, feminist work in public museums, learning cities and regions, community resilience, applied theatre and transformative learning, and the co-construction of knowledge in community–university partnerships. Contributions such as Adult Learning and Wellbeing: Between Body Politics and the Body Politic, Community Building as Forum and Arena, and Challenges in the Co-Construction of Knowledge foreground tensions between policy, participation, power and everyday practice. The strength of this book lies in its plurality. It holds together critical, empirical and practice-based insights, making it an important resource for understanding community learning in complex and changing times.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Building a global learning network: The international council for adult education
    (International Council for Adult Education, 0000) Hall, Budd L
    What can we learn from the histories, tasks, and challenges of building global cooperation in adult education? In this chapter, Dr. Budd L Hall reflects on the emergence and significance of the International Council for Adult Education as a key step in strengthening international collaboration in adult learning. He traces its historical roots in post war movements for literacy, liberation, and development, and situates its formation within broader struggles for democratic participation and social justice. The chapter outlines ICAE’s early tasks, including building regional networks, amplifying voices from the Global South, and shaping global policy debates in partnership with bodies such as UNESCO. Hall also discusses internal tensions, funding constraints, and the political challenges of sustaining an independent global civil society network. By examining questions of direction, alliances, and accountability, he invites readers to reflect on how global networks can remain responsive to changing contexts while staying grounded in their transformative commitments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Looking back, looking forward-reflections on the International participatory research network
    (Forests, Trees and People Newsletter, 1999) Hall, Budd L
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Participatory research: Revisiting the roots
    (2002) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L; Brown, L. David; Jaitli, Harsh; Kanhere, Vijay; Small, Dele; Gaventa, John; Merrifield, Juliet; Madiath, Anthya; Belamide, Eileen; Bryceson, Deborah; Manicom, Linzi; Kassam, Yusuf; Vio Grossi, Francisco; Hirabai Hiralal, Mohan; Tare, Savita; Batliwala, Srilatha; Patel, Sheela; Khot, Seemantinee
    It has been nearly a quarter of a century since the early formulations of participatory research began to be presented hesitatingly and tentatively. Those early proposals were essentially a reaction to the classical methodology of research and inquiry which had alienated the social science research enterprise from the very people about whom research was being carried out. In a simple way, stated then, participatory research challenged the 'monopoly of knowledge' which has been vested in the elites of our society. The production of knowledge, its certification and dissemination have been controlled by intellectual elites in all human societies, since a long period of time. The Brahmanical order justified its hierarchy by making the distinction between intellectual work and physical work. Brahmins were the repositories of knowledge and wisdom, could use the language of God's 'Sanskrit', and interpret the religious scriptures to prescribe the social norms and behaviour for the rest of society. Similar Brahmanical orders have existed in other cultures and other histories. Therefore, the first significant contribution of participatory research has been to challenge the mythical and artificial divide between mental labour and manual labour, intellectual pursuits and physical pursuits. It has questioned the belief that capacity for intellectual work resides in only a few. It argued that popular knowledge, ability to produce and use knowledge, is a universal human phenomenon, and such capacity exists in all human beings, so argued participatory research then.