Knowledge Democracy / Participatory Research
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Welcome to the Knowledge Democracy / Participatory Research Community. This community serves as a comprehensive repository of resources on participatory approaches, community-based research, and collaborative inquiry methods. Our mission is to foster knowledge sharing and support initiatives that empower communities to contribute to research, ensuring their voices shape the knowledge that impacts their lives.
Explore a wealth of materials, including case studies, policy papers, training guides, and research publications that highlight the practice and principles of participatory research worldwide.
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Item Foreword(0000) Hall, Budd LThis foreword by Budd L. Hall appears in Knowledge Translation in Context: Indigenous, Policy, and Community Settings, edited by Elizabeth M. Banister, Bonnie J. Leadbeater and E. Anne Marshal. It places the book within a wider knowledge movement aimed at recovering a knowledge commons and traces how action research, participatory research, and Indigenous approaches have worked towards this. The collection is welcomed as a broad account of what knowledge translation means in health. Attention is also drawn to the role of context, the place of Indigenous ways of knowing, questions of power, and the need for academic recognition of engaged research and for knowledge that supports social change.Item Learning from community-university research partnerships: A Canadian study on community impact and conditions for success(International Journal of Action Research, 2014) Hall, Budd L; Tremblay, CrystalThis article by Crystal Tremblay and Budd L. Hall, published in the International Journal of Action Research, looks at community-university research partnerships in Canada. It is based on twenty in-depth interviews with university and community partners who held grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The authors describe how these partnerships have affected communities, through stronger relationships, greater organisational capacity, better services, policy change and extra funding. They also identify conditions for success, including shared governance, trust and mutual respect, flexible arrangements, participatory methods, and a fair sharing of power and resources. Drawing on knowledge democracy, the article points to a new architecture of knowledge and notes the challenges that remain, such as career pressures on academics and the limited research capacity of community organisation.Item Inequality, Higher Education and Knowledge Democracy(Newsletter of Association of Commonwealth Universities, 2020) Hall, Budd LIn this article, published in the Spring 2020 newsletter of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Budd L. Hall looks at inequality and what it asks of higher education. It begins with the scale of poverty and homelessness in places as different as Victoria and India, and with research by Wilkinson and Pickett showing that both rich and poor fare better in more equal societies. The article then asks what a knowledge democracy movement might look like, drawing on John Gaventa’s idea of a knowledge strategy and on the work of Nyerere and Freire. Such a movement is kept apart from the knowledge economy, community engagement and open access to information, which are treated as supports rather than the movement itself. It closes by asking how community-university partnerships can strengthen knowledge democracy.Item Reconnecting society and science: Trajectories of the knowledge democracy movement(Sage, 2026-02-12) Tandon, RajeshAs interrelated global wicked problems increasingly engulf all sections of life on this planet, searching for knowledge solutions to address them has become urgent. While scientists in modern science establishments (labs) are busy finding answers to COVID (and other pandemics) and climate disruptions, communities and societies continue to struggle and use their own wisdom and capacity to find meaningful measures for local adaptations. This disconnect between societal actors and science has become critical. So, professional science communicators have critical responsibilities for rebuilding mutually respectful connections between society (and its diverse actors) and science. How can science communicators play such important roles in bridging society and science? Let me illustrate the ways it is being attempted in diverse contexts.Item Description of the methods of participation research(1978) Le Boterf, GuyThe article describes a research method used to identify the basic educational needs of rural populations in six villages in Central America. The research method is an approach that combines experimental research with a participatory survey of the community to identify educational needs. The communities participated by defining the problems they were facing, discussing their situation, identifying their educational needs, and developing possible solutions. This is different from a typical survey, since community members were given an active role in the research activities. Moreover, they provided feedback and were actively involved in discussions at various stages of the study and research process. This allowed the researchers to discuss and analyse the results with the community and to use their feedback in understanding and addressing specific problems. The study began with an initial exploration of the community, followed by the identification and prioritisation of needs, setting educational goals, developing strategies, discussion with the community, and implementation of the strategies. Researchers and technical specialists acted as facilitators and educators rather than being the sole producers of knowledge. The study links research, education, and community action, which is intended not only to analyse the situation in the communities but also to contribute to solving the problems that were identified.Item Higher education, community engagement and the world we want: A policy brief to the world conference on higher education(2009-06) Global Alliance on Community Engaged ResearchAt this critical time in human and sustainable development for the world, it is imperative that we harness the potential of community higher education partnerships to inform progress. There is a large aggregate trend to unite civil society and higher education institutions and networks in common efforts to co-create knowledge, mobilize it to inform practice and policy, and enhance the social, economic and environmental conditions of people, communities, nations and the world. However, these efforts are fragmented and face many unnecessary barriers. We therefore propose an Action Plan for University-Community Engagement for Societal Change and Development, one that unleashes the resources of higher education and government, in collaboration with civil society and its socio-economic development actors to create the sustainable world we want.Item La sistematización como investigación participativa [Systematization as Participatory Research](CLACSO, 2019) Carrillo, Alfonso TorresEl artículo presenta una panorámica de la sistematización como investigación participativa que emerge en América Latina, como metodología que busca comprender y potenciar prácticas de transformación social. A partir de reconocer la influencia de la IAP como matriz de referencia para dicha metodología, se expone su origen y trayectoria histórica, los sentidos que la animan y sus fundamentos epistémicos y rasgos metodológicos como investigación cualitativa y participativa. Finalmente, se señala que como modalidad investigativa en construcción, continúa creciendo y fortaleciendo, desde la práctica y la reflexión de sus practicantes en los nuevos campos sociales y profesionales donde hoy se desenvuelva.Item A North-South convergence on the quest for meaning(Sage, 1996) Fals Borda, OrlandoPersonal experience in Latin America led the author from academic work to fieldwork in participatory action research (PAR). This type of research implies a quest for meaning not only in life experiences but also within the intellectual endeavor. A comparison is made between Agnes Heller's version of such a quest and a previous attempt made in Colombia during the period when PAR was being constructed.Item Conscientizing the evaluator(1979) Etherington, AlanThis document aims to discuss the political and social aspects of the assessment of non-formal education and community programs. The text claims that social research and evaluation are intrinsically linked to politics since determining goals, methods, values, and priorities is inevitably connected to power relations. This document tries to demonstrate that traditional or dominant forms of research are intrinsically linked to oppressive social relations because they simplify social change, separate individuals from their environment, impose quantification, and favor evaluators. Therefore, it is essential to take a more emancipating approach that would allow the participants to realize their values, judgment, and power through reflective dialogues, reciprocal conversations, and shared learning. Moreover, Freire’s approach requires engaging in action research, understanding connections and interactions through the lens of oppression and power, asking who benefits and who loses from the research, and taking a holistic view of the object of research. The text also mentions that evaluators should make their assumptions and power positions over the communities assessed clear, as community projects seeking social change require critical awareness of how their evaluators contribute to the change.Item From clients to citizens: Asset-based community development as a strategy for community-driven development(The Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, 2002-01) Mathie, Alison; Cunningham, GordAsset-based community development (ABCD) is presented as an alternative to needs-based approaches to development. Following an overview of the principles and practice of ABCD, five major elements of ABCD are examined in the light of current literature on relevant research and practice. This involves exploring: the theory and practice of appreciative inquiry; the concept of social capital as an asset for community development; the theory of community economic development, such as the sustainable livelihoods approach; lessons learned from two decades of international development in the participatory paradigm; and the theory and practice of building active citizenship engagement and stronger civil society. How ABCD both reflects recent trends in these areas and stands to benefit from the insights generated from this work is outlined.