Participatory Action Research: what is it and how does it work?

The investigation social sciences It is very diverse and rich in proposals and possibilities for action. By understanding that we are beings immersed in a large number of meanings and codes through which we identify and interact, it has been possible to develop different ways of doing research and intervention.

In this article we will make a general definition of one of the most important methods in community social psychology: the Participatory Action Research (PAR).

What is Participatory Action Research?

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a psychosocial research method that is based on a key element: the participation of different agents. It is based on a reflection and a series of practices that aim to include all the participants of a community in the creation of scientific knowledge about themselves.

The IAP is a way of intervening in social problems that seeks that the knowledge produced by an investigation serve for social transformation. Likewise, it ensures that the development of research and intervention is focused on the participation of those who make up the community where it is located. investigates and intervenes, since the community itself is understood as the one in charge of defining and directing its own needs, conflicts and solutions.

In this sense, the IAP is a methodological proposal that arises as an alternative to one of the classic ways of intervening in social problems: that of making programs that do not consider who will be the beneficiaries or recipients of those programs.

For the same, action research has historically been linked to the mobilization of minority social sectors, promoting ways of doing research whose knowledge generated is used for the benefit of the community where the research is carried out.

Key concepts and process development

Some key concepts when proposing an IAP are planning, empowerment, strengthening and obviously the concept of participation. Likewise, it is a process that is carried out through a series of systematic and consensual actions.

Although there is no single way to carry it out, precisely because the steps must be flexible to the needs of both the community and the problems raised in the investigation, in general terms there are some stages through which an IAP passes, such as the detection or receipt of a demand, the familiarization and dissemination of the project, the participatory diagnosis, the detection and prioritization of needs, the design of an action plan, the execution of the actions, and the constant evaluation and also participatory.

Theoretical support: participatory paradigms

Participatory paradigms are epistemological and methodological models that have allowed the development of different ways of doing research. social, and that arise as a consequence of the criticisms that have been made to the predominant and more traditional ways of doing research social.

Following Montenegro, Balasch and Callen (2009), We are going to enumerate three characteristics or purposes of participatory paradigms, which are some of those that constitute the theoretical and methodological foundations of Participatory Action Research:

1. Redefine roles by specifying the shared field of action

The members of the communities are not simple recipients, recipients or beneficiaries, but rather recognized as producers of knowledge, with which there is joint work between different know.

The intervener is no longer an expert but rather a facilitator or facilitator in the research-intervention process. Thus, it seeks to get out of the distinction between subject of knowledge - object of knowledge (person who intervenes - people intervened). Understands knowledge as a product of heterogeneous experiences and the relationships they establish.

2. There is a political dimension

participatory methods they seek knowledge to be used towards the transformation of power relations and domination that have contributed to sustaining social inequalities. This is in contrast to some traditional intervention stances, whose aim is mainly the opposite: to fit people into social structures.

3. Evaluate challenges during the process

Evaluate the challenges and difficulties, as well as the solution strategies, for example, the inclusion of all people does not occur automatically nor is it always a desire shared by all or exempt from conflicts. Likewise, it may happen that the problematization that all the agents do is not always oriented towards social transformation or the production of critical knowledge, whose solutions are proposed according to the context, needs and expectations of the users. actors.

In sum, when considering that the people traditionally understood as the "intervened" are actually subjects of knowledge (just like the "interveners"), participatory methods base the detection of problems and decision-making on the involvement of knowledge and seek to establish horizontal relationships aimed at the social transformation of the community.

Bibliographic references:

• Delgado-Algarra, E. (2015). Participatory action research as a promoter of democratic citizenship and social change. International Journal of Education, Research and Innovation, 3: 1-11.
• Montenegro, M., Balasch, M. & Callen, B. (2009). Participatory perspectives of social intervention. OUC Editorial: Barcelona.
• Pereda, C., Prada, M. & Actis, W. (2003). Participatory Action Research. Proposal for an active exercise of citizenship. Ioé Collective. Retrieved April 13, 2018.