How to respond to the social, environmental and economic crisis through research: the role of participatory action research?

• In Event: NGO Innovation in Support of Development

Abstract

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been mobilized in different areas and according to various theoretical traditions. In many cases, PAR has allowed the implementation or reinforcement of social innovations that aim to achieve deep social transformations. Rooted in the critical and decolonial current of participatory action research developed in Latin America since the 1970s (Fals Borda, 2015; for a compilation: Diaz and Godrie, 2020), this work proposes to explore in detail a participatory action research device that constitutes itself a social innovation: the Community Service at the University of Quebec on Montreal (SAC UQAM).
Exploring this institutionalized participatory research device, we propose a processual analysis (Pozzebon et al., 2009; Tello-Rozas, 2016) of two research trajectories that were co-constructed by researchers and civil society organizations, and which have been accompanied by the SAC UQAM. This process analysis allows us to identify certain critical moments and recurring elements. In both cases, researches were born from the specific needs of third sector organizations, and have been developed in a co-construction process of several years (7 and 3 years respectively). In addition, the processual reading of these experiences allows us to analyze the SAC UQAM model (TIESS – SAC, 2018) in light of the PAR foundations.
This institutionalized PAR device within a university promotes the construction of knowledge from a perspective of mutual respect and non-hierarchization of plural knowledge. The model is in itself a social innovation and serves to illustrate the practice of epistemic justice (Fricker, 2007; Piron et al., 2016). This study also allows us to highlight different types of participatory action research through a continuous space of experiences that range from "research-consultation" (where the research group is hired to carry out a study) to "co-construction processes" (where the whole research process is built jointly) that aims to social transformation.

References

Diaz L. & Godrie, B. (dir), (2020). Descolonizar la ciencias sociales. Una antología bilingüe de Orlando Fals Borda (1925-2008) https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/falsborda

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Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice : Power and the ethics of knowing. online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Sept. 2007), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.001.0001

Piron, F., Regulus, S. & Dibounje Madiba, M-S. (2016) Justice cognitive, libre accès et savoirs locaux. Pour une science ouverte juste, au service du développement local durable. Québec, Éditions science et bien commun. On line https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/justicecognitive1.

Pozzebon, M., Diniz, E., & Jayo, M. (2009). Adapting the structurationist view of technology for studies at the community societal levels. In Y. D. Dwivedi, B. Lal, M. D. Williams, S. L. Schneberger, & M. Wade (Eds.), Handbook of research on contemporary theoretical models in IS. Hershey: Information Science Reference.

TIESS & SAC (2018). La coconstruction des connaissances: l'expérience du Service aux collectivités de l'UQAM, une inspiration majeure pour le TIESS.
Tello Rozas, S. (2016). Inclusive innovations through social and solidarity economy initiatives: A process analysis of a Peruvian case study. Voluntas : International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organization, 27(1) : 61-85 (DOI: 10.1007/s11266-015-9606-y)

Author

• Sonia Tello-Rozas, Université du Québec à Montréal UQAM