Community Knowledge
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Item The use of participatory methods in a community based adult education programme(Women and Development Unit (WAND) Extra Mural Department, UWI, 1982) Ellis, PatriciaThe document highlights the design of an adult education programme in Rose Hall using a participatory approach. The main areas covered by the programme include agricultural knowledge, home improvements, personal development, numeracy and English, which are taught depending on the needs and capabilities of the community. Participatory techniques such as discussion groups, role playing, stories, drawings, demonstrations and participatory evaluations have been used in the programme. Community members, education committee, resource persons and project coordinator take part in evaluating the programme and determining any problem and possible solutions. The programme helps in improving knowledge, self-confidence, communication skills, critical awareness, problem solving, decision making and community participation. This programme faces certain challenges in the form of participation, attendance, gender roles, time, human resources, attitude and documentation. The exercise illustrates how participation, dialogue, reflection and collective analysis could assist community members in analyzing their situation, knowing their strength and weakness and taking more responsibility in their development and that of their community.Item The application of participatory action-research in Latin America(International Sociology, 1987) Fals-Borda, OrlandoA research methodology that combines theory, action and participation (PAR) committed to further the interests of exploited groups and classes has been initiated and tried in many Third World countries since the 1970s. PAR claims inspiration from phenomenological and Marxist trends adjusted to regional realities and factors; it challenges established academic routines without discarding the need to accumulate and systematise knowledge, and to construct a more comprehensive and human paradigm in the social sciences; and it proposes a series of techniques to combine knowledge and power without falling into the dangers of world annihilation. This is illustrated with actual field studies and projects in Nicaragua. Colombia and Mexico.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 Lambatlaya(Institute of Social Work & Community Development (ISWCD), 1984) Abad, Henedina; Hall, Budd L; Gawasnon, Banika; Sadulla, Jaime; Veneracion, Ma. Corazon J; Tolentino, Carmina; Freire, Paulo; Lanot, Marra P.L; Lacaba, Jose F; Tan, Rene; Torres, Amaryllis T; Magno, NengThis bulletin is about participatory research as an alternative to traditional social science research practice in the Philippines, particularly research “with” and “for” the people. The contributions review research practices in which professional social scientists assume total or partial responsibility for defining problems, collecting, analyzing, interpreting data, and presenting findings to poor and vulnerable communities as if they are only research subjects. This bulletin draws lessons from the authors’ varied experiences in community development, adult education, health, rural and urban organizing, and social action. Participatory research is discussed as a praxis, that is, a process of inquiry, reflection, learning, and action. Participatory Action Research, participatory conscientizing research, community participation in research, alternative approaches to research, and building community research capacity are some of the issues taken up. Emphasis is placed on people’s participation in problem definition, data collection, analysis and interpretation, decision-making, and action. The contributions also take up issues of professional researchers’ monopoly over knowledge production, people’s concepts and analysis, community organization and empowerment, connecting research with action, and people’s participation in development planning. The bulletin further raises questions concerning methodology, research evaluation, community participation indicators, scientific validity, cost effectiveness, and research linkages with development planning. The contributions are by Henedina Abad, Rene Tan, Budd L. Hall, Amaryllis Torres, Neng Magno, and Ma. Corazon J. Veneracion. This bulletin also contains bibliographic essays by Jaime M. Sedullo, Ma. Corazon J. Veneracion, and Carmina Tolentino.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 Creating knowledge: A monopoly? Participatory research in development(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1982-06) Hall, Budd L; Gillete, Arthur; Tandon, RajeshThis book is about participatory research as a political process bound up with questions of power and knowledge production, rather than merely a set of methods. It opens with the Jamaican Drama for Progress literacy project, where a shift from delivering pre-written messages to villagers toward enabling them to write and perform their own material captures the move from research done on people to research done with them. Drawing on the Latin American tradition of investigación acción and Paulo Freire's thematic investigation, the collection questions who is authorised to produce knowledge about poverty and underdevelopment. Five theoretical essays address participation, power and alternative methods, followed by seven case studies from Indonesia, Senegal, Tanzania, England, Chile, Canada and India, and a concluding section of critical reactions. Rather than success stories, what emerges are unresolved questions about initiating participatory work, sustaining ties with political organisations, and balancing theory with praxis in research committed to social transformation.Item Knowledge and social change: An inquiry into participatory research in India(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1985-10) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)This report is about an inquiry into participatory research, evaluation, and training efforts across India, carried out by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) with seven collaborating organizations from different parts of the country. It grew out of a shared unease among researchers and trainers about the distance conventional social science placed between the expert and the people that research was meant to serve. The study set out to document ongoing experiments in the field and to draw out what these scattered efforts had in common. The cases move from training sessions with rural and urban women to inquiries carried out jointly by professionals, activists, and forest dwellers, each showing people affected by a problem taking part in investigating it themselves. The report works through how such processes build confidence and collective awareness among participants and how the person facilitating a group must stay close enough to its concerns to be useful while keeping enough distance to see clearly. The seven cases differ widely in setting and scale, yet common threads run through them around mobilization, skill-building, and the sharing of authority over knowledge, questions that the study returns to through each case.Item Participatory research international networking memo, March 15, 1985(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1985-03-15) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)The March 1985 issue of the Participatory Research International Networking Memo, circulated by PRIA, reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy and PRIA's efforts to document it for educational purposes through its collaboration with the Highlander Center. . A regional update reports on participatory research developments across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. These include the formation of the Senegalese Association of Participatory Research, PRIA's own work on a participatory research and evaluation study, a workshop on the Koel-Karo dam project in India, and ongoing Bhopal-related investigation and mobilization. Other updates cover a databank on participatory research literature in Italy, a planned handbook on self-reliant development, a new Participatory Research Exchange in the UK, the use of participatory research within Quebec's feminist movement, and a proposed workshop on knowledge, education, and power in Canada. The memo closes with a list of new publications, including studies from Taiwan, Bangladesh, and Norway, and two videos, one on community responses to Bhopal and another featuring a conversation with Rajesh Tandon and Ganesh Pandey on the origins of participatory research in AsiaItem Participatory research international networking memo, August 1, 1987(1987-08-01) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)The August 1987 issue of the Participatory Research International Networking Memo, circulated by PRIA, reports on the May 1987 arrest of Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan and fifteen others by Singapore's Internal Security Department. It presents the network's response to the arrests and includes an appeal for letters of support. The issue also announces the International Forum on Participatory Evaluation, planned for New Delhi in March 1988 with the International Council for Adult Education and ASPBAE, seeking regional input on structure, case studies, and funding. A regional update section surveys developments across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and North America, including the founding assembly of the African Association of Literacy and Adult Education, an Indonesian action research network, a Philippine community project, the 1986 J. Roby Kidd Award to Anthya Madiath, and the planned CEAAL assembly in Mexico. It closes with notices of new publications and a proposal for an international anthology on participatory research.Item A note on the participatory research project in the asian region(1981) Tandon, RajeshThis paper traces the rise of participatory research as a response to the limits of conventional social science, linking it to wider struggles for democracy and development. It reflects on both its potential and contradictions, framing it as an ongoing project rather than a finished method.