ABSTRACT
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an umbrella term covering a variety of participatory approaches to action-oriented research. Defined most simply, PAR involves researchers and participants working together to examine a problematic situation or action to change it for the better (Wadsworth 1998). For over seventy years, advocates of participatory approaches have been challenging the traditionally hierarchical relationships between research and action, and between researchers and ‘researched’ (Wadsworth 1998). They have sought to replace an ‘extractive’, imperial model of social research with one in which the benefits of research accrue more directly to the communities involved. Put another way, advocates have attempted to remove hierarchical role specifications and empower ‘ordinary people’ in and through research. Their intention is to transform an alienating ‘Fordist’ mode of academic production into a more flexible and socially owned process.
