Shared Sidewalks and Plates: Belonging in Participatory Research

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Method as Presence: Urgency, Belonging, and Relational Praxis in Qualitative Research

Abstract

The Baltimore Migrants Collective (BMC ) is an example of how participatory research (PR) can foster belonging within its own processes and challenge traditional knowledge hierarchies through critical spatial thinking (CST) and recognizing belonging as "space-sensitive" (Youkhana, 2015; Yuval-Davis, 2006). Preliminary analysis reveals that a strong sense of belonging within the BMC community was a critical catalyst for personal and collective learning, fostering trust, openness, and empowering participants as knowledge holders. This framework disrupted rigid politics of belonging and highlighted whose contributions were overlooked. The study concludes that PR must reflexively engage with how its spaces are created and contested to truly be participatory, enabling equitable knowledge co-generation.

Authors

• Amanda Man, University of Delaware

• Keondra A Prier, University of Delaware

• Soo Bin Jang, University of Delaware