ABSTRACT
Engaging in Participatory Action Research (PAR) and practice raises critical issues for research ethics. These issues emerge in two ways. First, participation pre-supposes a commitment to a set of values that more traditional research and practice do not necessarily require or embrace. These values have distinct implications for ethical decision making and can potentially augment and extend ‘classic’ ethical principles such as beneficence and respect for persons in ways that enhance research ethics as a whole. Second, the unique and complex characteristics of participatory work raise ethical questions and practical challenges not typically encountered when working within more traditional research paradigms (see also Kindon et al., Chapter 2 in this volume). Advocates of PAR must therefore call for reform of existing institutional ethical review procedures so that they can accommodate rather than frustrate ethical practice in and through participatory research.
