ABSTRACT
Analysis is an iterative and ongoing feature of Participatory Action Research’s (PAR) cycle of action and critical reflection. A consideration of the theory and practice of participatory analysis raises important questions that stretch our understanding of validity, reliability, rigour and interpretation. Founded upon an ‘epistemology that assumes knowledge is rooted in social relations and most powerful when produced collaboratively through action’ (Fine et al. 2003: 173), participatory analysis embraces knowledge production as a contested, fraught process. It assumes there is no one singular or universal truth, and instead emphasises the power of an intersectional analysis that takes difference into account (see also Kindon et al., Chapter 2 in this volume).
