ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author ascertains the prospect for emancipatory social work practice and research as promised by participatory action research (PAR) as a methodology well-suited for interventions that target excluded and oppressed populations. He argues that PAR promises of democratic participation and empowerment are not ipso facto fulfilled by simply adopting a PAR stance; instead, they should be conceived as challenging ideals to be actively pursued in an open-ended process of collective action to pre-figure a more just society. The chapter draws on author's experience as PAR practitioner and particularly on a participatory action research undertaking that spanned eight consecutive years of fieldwork with street kids in Cairo, Egypt between 1993 and 2001. Through observation and participant observation, the street workers were covertly observing behaviours, informally interviewing and collecting various accounts including family background, circumstances that led to the street, nature of street life, relations with peers and street leaders, modes of survival and acculturation and other data.
