Participatory Action Research
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Item A case study of participatory research among farmer-settlers in Southern Phillipines(1980) Belamide, EileenThis case study examines the use of participatory research as a tool for rural organizing among farmer-settlers in Southern Philippines. The study describes a community of migrant farmers facing persistent poverty, land conflict, displacement, and violence following a corporation’s claim to their cultivated land. Participatory research was integrated into a rural organizers’ training program and subsequently applied within the village through continuous dialogue, community immersion, data gathering, collective analysis, and organizing. Local farmer-settlers were involved as research partners in identifying problems, gathering and interpreting information, analyzing the economic, political, and cultural structures affecting their situation, and developing plans for collective action. The research process emphasized that data gathering should serve community action and strengthen self-reliance rather than function solely as an academic exercise. Through the transfer of research and analytical skills to community members, the villagers developed a broader understanding of their land struggle and its connections with wider social, economic, political, and cultural structures. The process also contributed to stronger community organization, collective decision-making, self-reliance, and initiatives in areas such as economic activities and community health. The study identifies the principal outcomes as changes in the community’s perception of its social conditions and gradual changes in aspects of the village’s social organization.Item Beyond "whose reality counts?" New methods we now need?(1997) Chambers, RobertActivities called PRA, and its equivalents in other languages, have evolved from a confluence, sharing and adaptation of methodologies, methods and participatory traditions. Synergies have generated new things to do and new ways to do them, including visual forms of analysis. A conjunction of conditions has produced an explosion of activities and applications, and spread to many countries and organisations - NGOs, Government departments, and even universities, and raising questions of ethics and of sharing methodologies. Coming from our different traditions, should we seek places of convergence and springboards for action? If so, could the concept of responsible wellbeing, and the question "Whose reality counts?" provide us with common ground? They fit with eclectic pluralism, a celebration of diversity, and democratic reversals of dominance. They raise shared issues of how we teach, learn, and construct realities, of dominant institutions and their cultures, and of personal power. They point towards responsible well-being for "uppers" being sought in empowering and privileging the realities of "lowers". Do we now have a phenomenal opportunity? We have participatory methodologies which are powerful, popular and self-spreading We have new space opened up by government and donor agency policies for participation and poverty reduction. Rapid spread has brought much bad practice. At the same time, PRA and other participatory methodologies have also shown a potential to contribute to changes at levels which are policy-related, institutional and personal To make the most of these opportunities invites sharing methods and experience between different traditions, and inventing new methods. Five methodological challenges now (May 1997) stand out as points of leverage. These are how better to 1. enable the realities and priorities of poor and marginalised people to be expressed and communicated to policy-makers 2. enable trainers to facilitate attitude and behaviour change 3. make normal bureaucracies more participatory 4. build self-improvement into the spread of participatory methodologies 5. enable people with power to find fulfilment in disempowering themselves Could it be that effective repertoires for these could lead to much good change? Could convergences and sharings of experiences and approaches among us contribute to such repertoires? Could we between us seize these opportunities in the new spaces which are opening up?Item Economics among the road scholars(2017-12-22) Dreze, JeanJholawala Economics’ is a derogatory term that the urban elites use to dismiss the arguments of social activists without having to contend with them. However, some of the jholawalas are indeed first-rate economists and their arguments cannot be dismissed easily. Jean Drèze is a prime example. His book ‘Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala Economics for Everyone’ puts together the wisdom that he and his co-authors (especially Reetika Khera) have gathered while doing research motivated by the problems they found at the grassroots level. This article is a condensed version of the thought-provoking introduction to the book. The article is a vigorous defense of the possibility of combining research with action. The argument is not that mainstream economists just interpret the world while the activists try to change it. It is about the learning value of collective action and the role of economists in society. In a country where we tend “to climb the ladder from the top” – Drèze’s characterisation of the Bullet Train project – the contribution of activists-scholars to economic research has special value.Item On research and action(Economic and Political Weekly, 2002-03) Dreze, JeanThe value of scientific research can, in many circumstances, be enhanced if it is combined with real-world involvement and action. This approach should be seen as an essential complement of, not a substitute for, research of a more ‘detached’ kind.Item Assessment of internal empowerment at the group level(0000)This paper presents frameworks for assessing internal and external empowerment at the group level in development interventions. It examines the monitoring systems and how they can capture the processes of group strengthening and the outcomes of collective action. Two dimensions of empowerment assessment, along with their indicators and methods are discussed. Internal empowerment encompasses self-management quality and quantity, problem-solving capabilities, democratisation, and self-reliance and sustainability. External empowerment parameters include influence with project implementing agencies, leverage with state agencies for development funds, representation in local government bodies, and engagement with other groups, social movements, and non-group members. The paper then illustrates the application of empowerment assessment by presenting four case studies of AGDEV- An agricultural development project , Women's Enterprise Development Project (WEDP), Rights- Slum initiative, and SANA- a capacity building agency.Item Participatory research in the Caribbean: Principles, practice, problems and potential. Issues and cases of the Caribbean Participatory Research Network, 1984-85(Caribbean Regional Council for Adult Education (CARCAE)., 1985) Harvey, ClaudiaA simple definition of research is that it is a systematic means of seeking information, explanation (cause and effect) and understanding of a complexity of factors. Any form of research, however, derives from a particular tradition - a body of theory and a methodology developed over time. Each discipline is marked by particular assumptions, concepts, questions methods and explanations which distinguish it from other disciplines. The assumptions derive from the particular perspective or view of the world held by the adherents to that particular discipline. The concepts are the specialized language used within the discipline to ask questions for which answers are sought using particular processes, principles and procedures. These assumptions, concepts and methods shape the kinds of questions asked and the explanations provided.Item Rural camps: Current assessment and future issues(National Labour Institute, 1977) Tandon, Rajesh