Participatory Action Research Overview and Introduction
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is the process of collaboratively seeking answers to community-informed and -driven questions in a way that is edifying, inclusive and regenerative.
When research is done irresponsibly, it causes harm. At worst, research can create and exacerbate racial and economic disparities. Yet research also holds the potential to be emancipatory. At Beloved, we understand that research is a powerful tool for disrupting the status quo to unearth pervasive inequities. Through PAR, we resist simplistic binaries of objective/subjective and regularly interrogate neutrality. We lean into the joy, creativity, and community-building required of research that challenges the status quo. We create research that is relevant, responsible, and legible to a broad audience. We believe research should be leveraged to help people change systems.
Our Research Mission is two-fold.
To generate inclusive research in the service of democratizing knowledge and transformative social change
To disrupt White Supremacy Culture (WSC) in research production & dissemination
“Research is about Power. PAR is About Sharing Power.
PAR is a multidisciplinary research approach that pays careful attention to power and relationships, and advocates for power to be deliberately shared between researchers and participants.”
Equitable research methods and inclusive practices such as PAR are critical to achieving our research mission. Such practices may look like:
Training community members to conduct their own research
Compensating local individuals and groups for their subject matter expertise and time
Partnering with various stakeholders to leverage social networks in the service of effective participant recruitment
Engaging participants in various aspects of research design
Co-writing and -authoring articles, report briefs, publications, and conference presentations
Inclusive and People-Centered. Participatory means that we seek to involve research participants as pivotal collaborators in all stages of the research life cycle; from research design (e.g., identifying topic areas, creating research instruments, recruiting participants) to data gathering and analysis, findings dissemination, and co-authorship. It also means that we decenter notions of the “expert,” to instead honor the rich experiences, stories and viewpoints of every person who walks through the door. To this end, we dedicate participant incentives or stipends to every research budget.
Relevance and Legibility Are Non-Negotiables. Action means that any research we pursue and produce must be anchored in a commitment to transformative social change. This means that we are committed to forms of research dissemination that are relevant and legible to a broad audience. Our responsibility is first and foremost to remain accountable to the communities we research. We do this by prioritizing community voice, agency, and wisdom in every step of the research process, including research dissemination. We believe It is irresponsible to produce research about communities without communities. Such research will be limited precisely because key voices are absent. At Beloved, we are equally dedicated to sharing findings as we are to producing the data.
Amplifying Voices to Transform World Views. Research is not simply numbers or a final report. It is about the process to listen where voices have been silenced and lift up the yells. It is about making visible the voices that have historically been erased from the public transcript. It is about taking the time to build rapport, gain trust, and honor that people’s stories— and the time and courage that it takes to tell them–are sacred. We engage research as a form of community-building, collective education, and healing.
Herein lies Beloved’s view of research as emancipatory.
