ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended to equip designers with the essential research principles needed for effective community participation. It aims to get designers to start thinking like researchers, and paying attention to these basics will go a long way towards that. The chapter looks at putting these principles into practice in designing an engagement programme/research project. Impartiality, ethical practice, reliability and validity are the fundamental principles underpinning all aspects of social research. The two main types, which are as relevant to a community participation programme as to an anthropological study or psychological experiment are Researcher bias and Participant bias. Participation specialists advise a little caution in working with community groups. A participation programme will generate a considerable amount of material as it progresses.
