Co-Construction of Knowledge
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Item Adult learning, global civil society and politics. October 15-17, 1997(1979-10-17) Hall, Budd LWhat role can adult education play in strengthening global civil society and advancing social transformation in an increasingly capital driven world? In this paper, Dr. Budd Hall situates this question within a context where globalisation has intensified the dominance of capital while deepening social, ecological and economic instability. He reflects on the contemporary political economy in which global markets appear powerful yet remain fragile and extractive. In response to this expansion of global capitalism, Hall posits that the presence and influence of global civil society have also grown, creating new spaces for resistance, cooperation and collective action. Engaging with debates on development, ecological crisis and democratic participation, and drawing on examples such as the 1992 Global Forum and emerging transnational networks, he examines how global citizens’ action is being shaped across diverse contexts. Hall invites readers to consider how more people can meaningfully contribute to these movements and emphasises the crucial role of adult educators in fostering critical awareness, building solidarities and deepening engagement with global civil society. He urges educators to remain clear that the world is not okay, and that adult education is essential for collective and transformative change.Item Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research(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 Transformative learning through environmental action: An overview of an IDRC sponsored project(1995) Hall, Budd LDr. Budd L. Hall presents an overview of a research project on transformative learning in environmental action, carried out with colleagues at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, York University, and partner organizations in Brazil. The project grew out of work around the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and focused on what people learn through environmental campaigns linked to food production, distribution, and consumption. Drawing on case studies from India, Sudan, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, and El Salvador, along with an international survey and a collective workshop, Hall and his co-researchers look at what needs to change in current systems, including life conditions, power relations, and ways of thinking, and set out ten principles of transformative learning, among them recovering a sense of place, reconnecting with nature, and recognizing historical struggles. The paper also describes practical methods used across the case studies, such as community meetings, learning from elders, and seed festivals, along with possible indicators of success. Hall notes that although computer networking was planned as a central tool, it ultimately played only a minor role in the project.Item Social movements and the practice of citizenship: Learning in the canadian and global context(0000) Aggarwal, Pramila; Hall, Budd LHow can learnings from social movements advance the practice of citizenship? In this paper, Budd L. Hall and Pramila Aggarwal argue that social movements are intensive sites of democratic learning where citizenship is not only claimed but actively practiced. They identify interconnected forms of learning. Informal learning among participants, intentional educational efforts within movements, and broader public learning that occurs as movements reshape public understanding. Knowledge generated in struggle travels beyond direct participants. Hall reflects, for instance, on how insights from the women’s movement transformed his own understanding of power even though he was not directly part of it. Drawing on the work of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, this paper situates social movements as spaces where learning, agency and structural critique converge. Movements generate new knowledge, identities and capacities for collective action, thereby expanding the meaning and practice of citizenship beyond legality and advancing adult learning as a lived, collective process. The authors posit that social movement learning can serve as vital sites for advancing adult learning and, by extension, deepening democratic citizenship.Item 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, WafaWhat does it mean to institutionalise the co-construction of knowledge between universities and communities at a global level? This paper begins from the premise that knowledge democracy requires moving beyond expert driven models towards collaborative processes that recognise the knowledge generating capacities of each human being and of every community. Community university research partnerships are presented as a key pathway for this shift, as they create structures through which research questions, methods, processes and outcomes can be shaped jointly. Drawing on a global survey and national case studies across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, the authors examine the histories, discourses and institutional forms that support or constrain such partnerships. This paper further analyses models such as Science Shops, centers of community-based research and national policy frameworks, while identifying tensions and practical challenges in embedding such work within universities. It highlights the importance of facilitative structures, supportive leadership, transnational networks and sustained institutional commitment. In doing so, it argues that institutionalising community-based research is not only a technical exercise but a political and ideological process that reshapes how universities understand knowledge, partnership and their responsibilities to society.Item From clarity to anarchy: Participatory research approach (A critique of "The methodology of the participatory research approach")(1979) Tandon, RajeshThis paper presents conceptual arguments to delineate the methodology of participatory research approach. After presenting an excellent analysis of the social and professional contexts of the origin of PRA, the authors describe various points of view which are broadly subsumed under PRA. The degree of researcher's political activism is seen as the main dimension on which these various points of view differ.Item Asian regional participatory research network: A note(1985) Tandon, RajeshDr. Rajesh Tandon's 1985 note reviews seven years of the Asian Regional Participatory Research Network, outlining its theoretical orientation and administrative structure. He argues participatory research in Asia has become part of the organized struggles of local people, challenging expert authority and helping communities build their own strength. The work has centered on five group-, workers, the rural poor, tribals, women, and urban slum dwellers, approached from a clear position alongside the oppressed rather than through debates over methods. On the administrative side, he records decisions from the December 1983 Manila meeting: regional coordination staying with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi, and patchy communication between regions. The note closes by asking someone else to take over as international coordinator after his three years in the post and calls for more inter-regional collaboration, possible residency exchanges, and a better networking system.Item Knowledge and social change: An inquiry into participatory research in India(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1985-10) Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)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.