Cox, Laurence (2024) Participatory action research in social movements. In: Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements. Elgar, pp. 399-408. ISBN 9781803922027

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Abstract

This chapter outlines why participatory action research (PAR) can be useful to social movements, and how to make it so. PAR involves movement activists carrying out research geared to their own needs, in a democratic process that transforms movement relationships and practice. The chapter is grounded in a 25-year experience of supporting activists carrying out PAR, and shows the wide range of different shapes it can take as activists reflect together on their own practice. It argues that this is far less risky than trial and error; focusses on the thing activists have most control over (their own actions); that its participatory and collective educational dimensions benefit movements politically; and that PAR supports movements becoming learning actors. Despite the diversity of actually-existing PAR, the chapter highlights some core principles that can be distilled from the experiences discussed to make PAR genuinely useful to movements.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Social movements; Protest; Participatory action research; Engaged research; Learning and knowledge production; Popular education;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	18209
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922027.00037
Depositing User:	Dr. Laurence Cox
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2024 10:03
Publisher:	Elgar
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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