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Participatory Action Research

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Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology

Introduction

Rooted in notions of democracy and social justice and drawing on critical theory (feminist, critical race, queer, disability, neo-Marxist, indigenous, and/or post-structural), the term participatory action research refers to an epistemology that engages research design, methods, analyses, and products through a lens of democratic participation and collective action.

Definition

Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research committed to democratic principles of justice and equality. It is an inclusive practice of research defined both by participation and a determination to produce knowledge in the interest of social change. While often regarded as simply a method, PAR is actually an epistemological stance that values knowledge produced from lived experience as equal to that produced in the academy and, in so doing, expands traditional notions of expertise. In expanding what counts as “expertise,” PAR also extends “the right to research” (Appadurai, 2006)...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    María Elena Torre

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  1. María Elena Torre
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Correspondence to María Elena Torre .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Thomas Teo

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Torre, M.E. (2014). Participatory Action Research. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_211

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_211

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

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