Participatory Research as Solidarity Infrastructure: Reimagining Public Sociology in Fragmented Labor Markets

• In Event: Innovations in Sociological Practice and Public Sociology: Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

Public sociology has long called for engagement beyond the academy, yet much of this engagement remains focused on communication rather than collective capacity-building. This paper argues that participatory research in fissured labor markets can function not only as a method of knowledge production, but as solidarity-building infrastructure.

Drawing on the work of the Participatory Action Research Center at The Workers Lab, I examine projects engaging gig workers, young workers, and disabled workers—populations concentrated in dispersed and precarious labor arrangements with few organic opportunities for connection. Across multi-month projects, approximately 250 workers have participated as paid research partners, shaping research questions, analyzing findings, and co-authoring outputs. In addition to generating worker-centered policy knowledge, these projects create structured spaces for recognition and collective interpretation. Seventy-two percent of participants report feeling more connected to others through the research process, 88 percent report feeling heard or validated, and more than 65 percent express interest in further organizing efforts.

I argue that participatory research can cultivate solidarity in four ways: by enabling narrative recognition, reframing individual grievances as structural, building relational ties across differences, and fostering collective political imagination. In fragmented labor markets where workers lack shared worksites, research spaces can function as collective forums.

By positioning workers as compensated collaborators and sharing interpretive authority, this model expands public sociology beyond dialogue toward relational capacity-building. The paper concludes by discussing tensions, limits, and implications for sociological practice, arguing that participatory research offers a replicable innovation for advancing public sociology in an era of labor precarity.

Author

• Shelly Steward, The Workers Lab