Co-Construction of Knowledge

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Start date: 2000End date: 2009

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
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    Doing participatory research: A feminist approach
    (Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts., 2000) Maguire, Patricia
    In this text the author traces her beginnings as a student researcher trying to understand the biases of traditional research by engaging in participatory research with a group of battered women in Gallup, New Mexico. Using Paulo Freire's concept of dialogue, Pat talks with former battered women in their kitchens, transcribes the interviews and presents the women in their own words. Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action, reaching for a solution to the problem-how to move forward after living with violent men. This highly creative work will involve the reader in theory and practice.
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    Higher education, community engagement and the world we want: A policy brief to the world conference on higher education
    (2009-06) Global Alliance on Community Engaged Research
    At this critical time in human and sustainable development for the world, it is imperative that we harness the potential of community higher education partnerships to inform progress. There is a large aggregate trend to unite civil society and higher education institutions and networks in common efforts to co-create knowledge, mobilize it to inform practice and policy, and enhance the social, economic and environmental conditions of people, communities, nations and the world. However, these efforts are fragmented and face many unnecessary barriers. We therefore propose an Action Plan for University-Community Engagement for Societal Change and Development, one that unleashes the resources of higher education and government, in collaboration with civil society and its socio-economic development actors to create the sustainable world we want.
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    From clients to citizens: Asset-based community development as a strategy for community-driven development
    (The Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, 2002-01) Mathie, Alison; Cunningham, Gord
    Asset-based community development (ABCD) is presented as an alternative to needs-based approaches to development. Following an overview of the principles and practice of ABCD, five major elements of ABCD are examined in the light of current literature on relevant research and practice. This involves exploring: the theory and practice of appreciative inquiry; the concept of social capital as an asset for community development; the theory of community economic development, such as the sustainable livelihoods approach; lessons learned from two decades of international development in the participatory paradigm; and the theory and practice of building active citizenship engagement and stronger civil society. How ABCD both reflects recent trends in these areas and stands to benefit from the insights generated from this work is outlined.
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    The funding and development of community university research partnerships in Canada: Evidence-based investment in knowledge, engaged scholarship, innovation and action for Canada's future
    (OCBR, University of Victoria; Community Based Research Canada, 2009-10) Office of Community-Based Research, University of Victoria; Community Based Research Canada
    The purpose of this report is to map out the sources and types of funding that have been created to support community university research partnerships, describe the current state of development of arrangements between public post secondary institutions and community organizations, to collaborate in research and knowledge mobilization, and suggest some conclusions as to how effective partnership work of this kind might be strengthened in the future.
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    Participatory impact assessment: A pilot programme in South Asia.
    (Voluntary Agencies Support Scheme (VASS), 2002-03) Quinn, Marion; Clark, Kevin
    This report documents a South Asian pilot programme on Participatory Impact Assessment and argues that evaluation must move beyond expert-led measurement of outputs toward a continuous and democratic process in which communities themselves analyse change, define priorities, and shape future action. Drawing on experiences from India and Bangladesh, it shows how participatory approaches deepen both the quality and meaning of impact assessment by placing people’s lived realities at the center. Through methods such as group discussions, mapping, interviews, ranking, and reflective exercises, communities were able to examine shifts in confidence, leadership, access to services, household decision making, and collective organisation. The process also brought forward unintended outcomes, local constraints, and concerns that are often overlooked in conventional evaluations. A key contribution of the report is its insistence that impact assessment should happen throughout the project cycle rather than only at the end. When undertaken in a participatory manner, evaluation becomes not just a tool of measurement but a means of learning, accountability, and institutional improvement. It strengthens community capacities, deepens ownership, and helps organisations remain responsive to changing realities. This report is an important resource for understanding how people centered approaches can make development practice more accountable, reflective, and meaningful.
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    National level orientation programme on strengthening urban governance in india a Participatory research intervention, October 9-11, 2000, Reading material no. 2 and 4
    (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2000) Gill, Harbans Singh; Praja
    Harbans Singh Gill examines the capacity-building challenges facing India's urban sector at the turn of the century. The paper traces the rapid pace of urbanization, noting the fourfold rise in urban population over four decades and the growing concentration of people in large settlements above one lakh persons. It documents persistent gaps in access to basic services such as drinking water, electricity, sanitation, and solid waste management, with smaller towns and less developed states bearing the heaviest burden. Gill identifies the widening distance between demand and supply of urban infrastructure as the central concern, compounded by weak municipal finances following the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. To address this, the paper works through small and medium town development, municipal finance reform and sustainable city planning, proposing for each- a cycle of research, training and policy seminars- that can turn identified problems into concrete action plans.
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    A river of life: Learning and environmental social movements
    (Interface: A journal for and about social movement, 2009) Hall, Budd L
    What and how can we learn from social movements? According to Dr. Budd Hall, social movements are intense locations for knowledge to come together and for learning to happen. They are seen as one of the best routes to social transformation because they bring together action, learning and social change. In this 2009 paper, Dr. Hall reflects on the epistemic value of social movements in the creation of knowledge. He begins by exploring what a social movement is and outlines its characteristic features as discussed by different schools of thought. The paper is a collaborative effort involving teams from three organisations and presents qualitative analyses based on case studies of environmental social movements from countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Sudan, India, Canada and many more. From these cases, the paper formulates key principles of environmental social movement learning, including seeing humans as part of nature rather than separate from it, deconstructing power relations in our relationship with nature and with each other as a first step toward transforming them, and several other interconnected insights. Through both theoretical reflection and grounded case studies, Hall argues that social movements, while leading to social transformation, also facilitate deep personal transformation by creating powerful spaces for learning.
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    In from the cold? Reflections on participatory research from 1970 - 2005
    (Convergence, 2005) Hall, Budd L
    Participatory Research is a term which was first articulated in Tanzania in the early 1970s to describe a variety of community-based approaches to the creation of knowledge. Taken together these approaches combine social investigation, education and action in an interrelated process. The International Council for Adult Education provided a home in 1976 for what became the International Participatory Research Network, the means by which the ideas and practices of participatory research became more widely visible. Participatory research was a concept which, unlike most contemporary research paradigms, originated in the majority world. It originated in the rapidly expanding networks of non-governmental organisations in the 1980s and 90s. It has been the research approach of choice in many of the social movement interventions of the past 20 years. Participatory research and its sister concept participatory action research have in the past 15 years been taken up in many universities around the world both as a teaching subject and as a research method for graduate studies. One might say that, participatory research has come “in from the cold”, that it has come in from the margins to become an accepted member of the academic family.
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    Collaborative participatory research in gender mainstreaming in social change organizations
    (Participatory research in Asia (PRIA), 2006-11-19) Tandon, Rajesh; Farrell, Martha
    Unequal gender relations in societies, specially developing countries, have been focus of development programmes for decades. Much of this focus has been on changing gender relations in communities. However, organisations - governmental and private also reflect similar patterns of gender relations. Advocacy for gender mainstreaming in organisations has had limited success due to prescriptive approach. PRIA has adopted a learning process approach to gender mainstreaming in development NGOs in India. Collaborative Research methodology has been utilized towards this end. This paper describes one such case and draws implications for future research and practice.
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    Who is driving development? Reflections on the transformative potential of asset-based community development?
    (Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, 2003-10) Mathie, Alison; Cunningham, Gord
    Arising out of a critique of needs-based approaches to development, Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) offers a set of principles to mobilize and sustain community economic development. This paper draws attention to the connections between these principles and practices and (i) current interest in sustainable livelihoods as a conceptual framework, (ii) the concept of social capital, (iii) the social psychology of mobilization, (iv) the enhancement capacity and agency to engage as citizens with the entitlements of citizenship, (v) the role of multiple stakeholders; and (vi) the issue of control over the development process. Finally the paper points to the challenges for NGOs employing an asset-based, community-driven approach given the needs-based, problem-solving paradigm in which they operate.