ABSTRACT
As the chapters in this book ably illustrate, Participatory Action Research (PAR) is defined by three characteristics: participation, research and action. In this chapter, I explore the action component of PAR and associated institutional challenges, while in the next chapter Paul Chatterton, Duncan Fuller and Paul Routledge examine the challenges of linking action to activism. To explore the institutional challenges I focus on three key questions:
• What actions result from PAR? • What role do institutions have in the action component of PAR? • What challenges do institutions present and what strategies can researchers
use to negotiate the challenges?
