ABSTRACT
This chapter asks how Participatory Action Research (PAR) relates to some current theoretical paradigms, how it informs new research practices, and how it produces change inside and outside of the academy. To explore these questions, we consider PAR’s relation to recent social and spatial turns in social and environmental research. As we discussed in Chapter 3, poststructuralist approaches have been most prominent in recent debates about PAR; here we reflect on other significant perspectives. We also identify how our own engagements with PAR in different contexts tackle theory, invigorate practice and open up possibilities for social change and political transformation.
