Socially Responsible Higher Education

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Citizen engagement in urban governance: Lessons from small and medium towns in India
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2009) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
With the rapid expansion of Indian cities came new pressures on governance, raising difficult questions about how urban institutions could remain accountable and responsive to citizens. This report focuses on the role of citizen engagement in strengthening urban governance in India. This study, drawing on case studies and field experiences, examines how rapid urban growth has reshaped city management and points to the possibilities opened up when citizens are given space to engage with governance. The analysis shows that while policies and structures for participation exist on paper, many citizens, especially those from marginalized groups, remain excluded from these processes due to a lack of awareness, resources, or institutional support. The paper points to the need for deeper trust and stronger channels of dialogue between citizens and city governments to make engagement meaningful. By placing citizens at the heart of governance, the study underlines how democratic processes in cities can become more inclusive, responsive, and effective in addressing the needs of diverse urban populations, positioning participation as the foundation of just and sustainable urban futures.
Enabling Public Grievance Redressal Systems in Municipalities: An Operational Manual
(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2013)
This report is about enabling urban municipalities with Public Grievance Redressal (PGR) systems, developed by PRIA India along with PRIP Trust in Bangladesh and SILAKA in Cambodia and supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund. The manual is based on a project carried out across cities in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia between 2011 and 2013. Municipal accountability depends on citizens having a reliable way to raise complaints, and the manual lays out what PGR systems are and why they matter for governance that answers to the people it serves. Civil society organizations and municipal officials are shown working together at each stage, from assessing what already exists to mobilising citizens, building the capacity of staff and elected representatives, and eventually institutionalising complaint mechanisms within municipal structures. Challenges that surfaced during implementation find space here too: limited awareness among citizens, resource constraints within municipalities, and resistance from within bureaucracies that complaint systems often disturb. It provides examples and case studies from India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Malaysia to guide practitioners working to strengthen municipal governance.
Participatory research: An approach for change
(International Council for Adult Education, 1975) Hall, Budd L
How can research be imagined as an educational and transformative process rather than an extractive one? In this reflective essay, Dr. Budd Hall examines the shortcomings embedded within dominant principles of social science research. Drawing from his experiences as a researcher and his interactions with local education officers in the 1970s, he reflects on how research practices often alienate communities from the very processes meant to understand them. The essay explores key concerns around the ideological foundations of research, the ways in which social problems are oversimplified, and the distance from adult education principles. In doing so, it invites researchers to reimagine research as a dialectic, dialogic and ongoing educational experience which is oriented towards the liberation of human creative potential rather than the production of “neutral” knowledge.
Participatory research: Canadian adult educators build a global movement
(0000) Hall, Budd L; Jackson, Edward T
What role did Canadian adult educators play in shaping one of the most significant global research movements of the twentieth century? In this chapter, Dr. Budd Hall and Edward T. Jackson trace the history and evolution of participatory research as a major approach in adult education and community-engaged scholarship. The Participatory Research Group was founded in 1976 at OISE and was the Canadian node of the International Participatory Research Network. The group worked with labor, Indigenous organizations, immigrant associations, women’s groups, and other community-based organizations. It also describes important transformations in institutions, including the creation of international research networks, the expansion of community-university partnerships, and the emergence of programs like the Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) and UNESCO-supported initiatives that promote knowledge democracy. The chapter concludes with an analysis on lessons learned from five decades of practice and a reaffirmation of the ongoing relevance of participatory research for the advancement of equity, democratic participation, and socially responsive forms of education.
Strengthening community university research partnerships: Global perspectives
(University of Victoria and PRIA, 2015-08) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, Rajesh; Tremblay, Crystal
Universities everywhere are being called to engage more closely with the communities around them. This book looks at what that actually means in practice. Bringing together perspectives from fifty countries and case studies from twelve, it explores how reciprocal research partnerships are built, supported, and sustained. The chapters show both the opportunities and the tensions of collaboration, and suggest how such partnerships can strengthen knowledge democracy while reshaping the role of higher education. By tracing patterns across regions, the book highlights the policies and structures that make engagement possible, while also pointing to the deeper cultural shifts that such collaboration demands.
Teaching participatory research: Making higher education participatory and relevant
(2010) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
The paper argues that inclusion of Participatory Research (PR) in the curricula of institutions of higher education will facilitate its actual practice, thereby contributing to new forms of knowledge production and social change. Participatory Research (PR),as an alternative to dominant social science research methodology and an approach for social change, gained recognition in the 70s. More than three decades later, however, much more is needed for the inclusion of PR in the formal higher education system. This paper highlights the status of PR in institutions of higher education in India; it analyses the viability of its inclusion and presents the challenges it faces across social science disciplines, in degree level courses, as well as in doctoral research. Drawing upon national and international experiences ,the paper explores ways by which higher education institutions in India can include PR in the curriculum and teaching practices .