From clarity to anarchy: Participatory research approach

Abstract

As debates on participatory research gained ground in the late 1970s, questions arose about whether it was a methodology, a political stance, or something in between. This paper, presented at the African Regional Workshop on Participatory Research, examines those tensions by contrasting the perspectives of grassroots activists with those of professional researchers. It considers how participatory research challenges the conventions of classical inquiry by embracing action and subjectivity, yet in doing so risks appearing unruly or even anarchic. Rather than seeking neat resolutions, the study positions participatory research as an unsettled and evolving practice, shaped as much by politics as by method.