Doing Participatory Research: a feminist approach

Maguire, P. (1987). Doing participatory research: A feminist approach. Center for International Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts.

Maguire describes three core activities of PR--investigation, education and action--and emphasizes that these activities are collective processes, denoting that it is collective inquiry that builds group ownership of information while carrying out research. With regard to action, Maguire stresses the fluid time frame of action, writing "While direct community action is an intended outcome of participatory research, people may also decide not to act at a particular point in time. The important point is that those involved in the production of knowledge are involved in the decision making regarding its use and application to their everyday life" (p.37). Hence, she defines PR as "a systematic approach to radical social transformation grounded in an alternative paradigm world view" (p.37).

She finds the origins of PR in three domains: international economic development in the 60s and 70s, alternative adult education and social science communities: (1) radical and reformist reconceptualizations of internatinal economic development assistance by including the poor into full participation in development decisions, processes, and benefits, (2) the reframing of adult education as an empowering alternative to traditional educational approaches: Freire, for instance, emphasized the importance of critical consciousness, conscientization, for social change, and this consciousness is developed by taking actions. Bud Hall brought PR practices to adult education on the ground that adult learners participate actively in the world while adult education regards them as passive entities. (3) an ongoing debate within the social sciences, challenging the dominant social science paradigm.

Maguire delineates the underlying assumptions of PR as follows: (1) PR begins with the premise that knowledge the single most important basis of power and control and only one particular knowledge, scientific knowledge, became validated in society, excluding other types of knoweldge, in particular, knowledge developed by the ordinary. (2) PR emphasizes the partnership between researcher and participant, insisting on their further learning through collaboration. (3) PR assumes that ordinary people, provided with tools and opportunities, are capable of critical reflection and analysis. (4) The principle of shared power is central to PR to the extent that it attempts to shift the power and control of decision making to participants. (5) PR conceives social change by returning the power of knowledge production to the ordinary.

Maguire sharply points out the androcentricity of PR: PR, breaking the positivist monopoly of knowledge creation, appears to collude with the predominant male bias of the social sciences by rendering gender indistinguishably through generic terms such as "people", "oppressed", "the community", etc.

(p.61)
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