Knowledge Democracy
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Item Decolonisation of higher education: Knowledge, democracy and values(0000) Hall, Budd LThis paper, written by Dr Budd L. Hall examines how colonial ideas shaped whose knowledge counts in higher education. Hall links the enclosure of common land in Europe to the enclosure of knowledge in early universities. Drawing on the idea of epistemicide, the killing of knowledge systems, he explains how Western thought came to dominate the world. The paper then presents examples from PRIA, the Honey Bee Network, Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity, Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Lil’wat First Nation, which show that knowledge also grows outside the academy. It concludes with seven principles of knowledge democracy, including the recognition of multiple ways of knowing, the co-construction of knowledge, community rights over knowledge and open access to research. These principles call on universities to reconsider whose knowledge they recognise and to support more inclusive approaches to research and education.Item Non-formal adult education as an entry point for community organisation(0000) Ginny; Shrivastava, OmHow can adult education be leveraged to organise communities? Non formal adult education, by virtue of its flexibility and close alignment with local needs, offers a strong entry point for community organisation. In this article, Ginny and Om Srivastava outline how adult education can be operationalised not merely as a literacy intervention but as a participatory process rooted in people’s lived realities aimed towards individual and social development. They emphasise that the core aim is not limited to reading and writing, but to enable individuals to understand their social conditions, develop critical awareness, and begin to act collectively. Literacy, functional knowledge, and consciousness raising are seen as interconnected pathways through which people can recognise their own potential and organise for change. The article further details how such programmes must be grounded in the community through immersion, participatory methods, and locally relevant materials. Adult education centres, when designed as shared spaces of dialogue and reflection, can evolve into forums for collective decision making and action. In this sense, adult education becomes not an end in itself, but a starting point for building confidence, leadership, and sustained community organisation.Item Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research( Prospects, UNESCO, 1979) Hall, Budd LWhat 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.Item The democratization of the production of knowledge(1988-05-03) Hall, Budd LDr. Budd L. Hall delivered the opening address at a participatory research workshop held at the University of Calgary in May 1988. In this address, he reflects on his journey in participatory research, beginning with his work in Tanzania in the early 1970s, where he met Paulo Freire, to his role in founding the International Participatory Research Network in 1977. By the time of the address, he headed the International Council for Adult Education. . Participatory research is framed through three connected dimensions: a theoretical grounding aimed at building popular hegemony rather than serving ruling classes, an epistemological understanding of knowledge formed through the interaction of research, education and action, and a political practice built on working directly with communities. Feminist, Indigenous, and worker perspectives run through the address, including a Montreal poultry workers' union that studied its own workplace health conditions instead of relying on outside experts, illustrating that there are many ways of knowing beyond formal Western science. John Gaventa's observation appears too that social movements often falter either by rejecting research altogether or by depending too heavily on outside experts. A six-step method developed by Joao Francisco de Souza runs from context and justification through to the collectivization of the knowledge produced. Participatory research is presented, in the end, as a difficult but necessary strategy within the larger struggle over who controls knowledge and powerItem Higher education, the politics of knowledge and the challenges of popular education and social movements(1993) Hall, Budd LDr. Budd L. Hall reflects on the politics of knowledge in higher education, drawing on his own experiences across adult education, participatory research, and academic life. The paper departs from conventional academic arguments. It moves through personal narrative and engagement with other scholars to examine how universities continue to decide what counts as legitimate knowledge. Hall grounds these reflections in specific encounters from his career, particularly the 1991 Paulo Freire Birthday Conference in New York, where a question from a Latina community educator pushed him to rethink how universities relate to the communities they claim to serve. He traces participatory research back to challenges against positivist paradigms in adult education and international development research, noting that even as the field gains recognition inside universities, systems of tenure, promotion, and academic reward continue to favor individual scholarship over collaborative and community-rooted work. Eco-feminist, cultural-historical, and adult education voices, including Vandana Shiva, Mechtild Hart, and Edmund Sullivan, widen the critique further. Hall also points to community-based research centres, PRIA among them, and popular education networks across Latin America as spaces sustaining knowledge outside university walls, closing with a call to reinvent the academy in more democratic and non-extractive termsItem Challenges in the co-construction of knowledge: A global study on strengthening structures for community university research partnerships(0000) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal; Singh, WafaIn this paper, Budd Hall, Rajesh Tandon, Crystal Tremblay and Wafa Singh present a global study on structures that support community-university research partnerships. The study draws on an international survey and national case studies from twelve countries, examining how universities institutionalise community engagement and where this engagement connects with actual research practice. The authors turn to the discourse of knowledge democracy, arguing that community-based research offers a way to address long-standing inequities in whose knowledge counts within the academy. Survey findings point to a gap between universities' stated commitment to co-constructing knowledge and the reality that very few research projects originate from communities themselves. The paper reviews facilitative structures across universities in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and elsewhere, and considers the role of national networks and policies in strengthening these partnerships. It closes with recommendations for national policy, higher education institutions, and community and civil society organisations.Item Entry for new pergammon encyclopaedia of adult education: Social movement learning(0000) Hall, Budd L; Clover, Darlene E.This encyclopedia entry by Budd L. Hall and Darlene E. Clover examines social movement learning as an under-recognized domain of adult education. It asks how social movements function as "epistemic communities" that generate new knowledge, worldviews, and transformative learning for both participants and broader society. The article defines and expands on social movement learning as occurring in two ways, learning by people who are part of social movements, and by people outside movements as a result of movement actions or existence. It further traces the historical and theoretical roots of social movement learning, drawing on key figures including Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, who both saw learning flourishing within social movement contexts. The article also elaborates on other theories about how new social movements catalyze personal transformation, define future topics of adult education, and serve as privileged sites of transformative learning. It argues that contemporary social movements are increasingly radical, complex, and inclusive of overlapping issues, cognizant of globalization and interconnected struggles. It ends with stating how social movement learning helps answer critical questions about how best to use scarce resources for movement purposes and how to strengthen the power of social movements.Item Education for all as determined by the few?(Society for Participatory Research in Asia, 1989-12) Tandon, RajeshThe text talks about the World Conference on ‘Education For All’ world charter, and the subsequent issues raised by educationalists while examining their documents. The text examines eleven such issues. First, the narrow economistic and utilitarian view of education focused on human capital formation rather than a humanistic vision. Second, education is portrayed as adaptative and socializing rather than transformative and liberating. Third, ignorance being equated with illiteracy, ignoring the knowledge and wisdom of non-literate people and the destruction caused by the literates. Fourth, the documents treat Education For All as a techno managerial problem rather than recognizing it as a fundamentally political decision requiring political will. Fifth, disparities in education are presented as the reason for underdevelopment, ignoring that educational disparities are rooted in socio-economic and political inequalities. Sixth, gender justice receives only superficial attention despite women constituting 70% of those denied education. Seventh, other marginalized groups like the tribals, scheduled castes, the poor, minorities are also largely ignored. Eighth, literacy is underplayed despite being central to Education For All. Ninth, the process is highly centralized, excluding the common people whose learning needs are to be met. Tenth, resource mobilization discussions fail to address debt burdens and defense expenditures that divert resources from education. Finally, the whole process and language of the documents risks new forms of colonization, with educational agendas determined mainly by donors and experts from the North. The paper concludes by calling for this initiative to be critiqued, discussed, and debated to ensure that Education For All becomes a genuine concern of all people.Item Participatory research-Popular knowledge and power(1984-09) Hall, Budd LThis article includes two chapters about the concepts of knowledge and creation of a monopoly over social science research along with offering an alternative in the form of participatory research. The first chapter discusses knowledge within the context of economic failure and the role of universities in the new international order. It talks about the commodification of knowledge which has facilitated capitalist dependency and an uneven development in third world countries. It further discusses the monopoly created over knowledge by a small group of elites to serve their own interests. Indigenous education around the world appears to be absent from the universal body of knowledge. The paper then discusses in detail about how research and social scientists are being used by institutions to impose bureaucratic and ideological control. It criticises the traditional research methods and opens discussion on an alternative methodology, in the form of participatory research. The next chapter further explores the concept of participatory research, its origin, and its characteristics. It talks about the importance of popular forms of knowledge and how it is linked with social transformation. It emphasizes the need for participatory research processes to be working within the frameworks of social movements. The chapter concludes with presenting some points to shape the future of participatory research.Item Knowledge participation and empowerment(1997-11) Tandon, RajeshThe article by Dr. Rajesh Tandon talks about the practices of participatory research as a philosophy of subaltern knowledge systems. He states how historically, knowledge systems have been dominated by elites who maintain hegemonic control over them while negating the perspectives of marginalized people, and defines participatory research as an alternative process and method. The article goes on to trace the origins of participatory research to the practice of Adult Educators in poor communities of Asia, Africa, and Latin America and lists networks promoted by organizations that became the breeding ground for experiments in participatory research. Dr. Tandon further mentions PRIA (Participatory Research in Asia) and documents its evolution and interventions in the work of participatory research in various fields like environment, workers' education, occupational health, and women’s issues. The article ends by identifying challenges in the form of bureaucratic state institutions, statism, and emerging technologies, also placing emphasis on the role of adult education to help citizens regain their capacities.