“We the People”: Epistemological Moves Through Cultural Praxis

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Alberto Quijada Cerecer ◽  
Caitlin Cahill ◽  
Yvette Sonia González Coronado ◽  
Jarred Martinez

How do young people embody activism and artistic praxis as they commit to community-based participatory action research for social change? We consider how the arts might provide a social and shared context for challenging racialized characterizations. Our analysis draws upon arts-based participatory action research projects conducted by the Mestizo Arts & Activism Collective ( https://maacollective.org ), a social justice think tank led by the urgent concerns of young people of color. Specifically, we engage the arts as integral to the research process—an epistemological move that opens up new ways of understanding and knowing our world and representing ourselves.

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amie Thurber ◽  
Leslie Collins ◽  
Marilyn Greer ◽  
Demetrese McKnight ◽  
Darlene Thompson

Policies affecting those living in poverty are often created without the direct and meaningful participation of the people meant to be served. This has been especially the case with public housing. To contextualize the need for alternative approaches to inquiry, we begin by examining the history of public housing through the lens of oppression and present critical Participatory Action Research as an alternative approach to research and policy-making. We provide a case study of a critical Participatory Action Research project sited in a public housing project slated for redevelopment. We conclude that engaging “resident experts” in the research process heightened the validity and credibility of the findings, amplified residents' self-determination, and provided greater congruence between the researchers' social justice values and our research methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-242
Author(s):  
SARAH ZELLER-BERKMAN ◽  
JESSICA BARRETO ◽  
ASHA SANDLER

In this essay, authors Sarah Zeller-Berkman, Jessica Barreto, and Asha Sandler, members of an intergenerational research team, explore findings from a critical participatory action research (CPAR) project on the lived experiences of young people in New York City who fell behind in middle school and/or who had the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in their lives. This qualitative companion project to a Department of Education (DOE) and ACS data-sharing initiative included focus groups that surfaced recommendations for healing-centered approaches, equitable schools, and institutionalized ways young people are part of identifying issues and implementing solutions. This article examines these recommendations in relation to past and concurrent CPAR projects conducted by other intergenerational participatory action research and/or activist groups in New York City. It articulates a theory of action as it relates to youth participation on issues that impact young people’s lives more broadly, not just related to school reform.


Author(s):  
Lina Trigos-Carrillo ◽  
Laura Fonseca

Conducting critical community research during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unexpected challenges to academic communities. In this chapter, the authors analyze the obstacles faced in a Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) education project with a rural community of former guerrilla members in the Amazon piedmont in Colombia. After this analysis, the authors present four CPAR principles to support critical community work during difficult times. The authors argue that communicative action, horizontal community participation in all the stages of the research process, time commitment, and the leverage of other competing needs should be guaranteed and maintained during times of crisis. CPAR offers opportunities to advocate better conditions for the most affected communities in moments of increasing inequality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Liegghio

While globally advances have been made to recognize children as social actors in their own right, for psychiatrized young people their experiences of distress are often seen as a limitation and thus used as a justification for denying their meaningful participation in matters of concern to their lives. However, what would it mean if ‘mental illness’ was not seen as a ‘limitation’, but rather as an ‘epistemological position’ from which the social world is experienced, understood and acted upon? What would it mean if our theories about ‘distress’ and ‘helping’ were premised on the subjugated knowledges of psychiatrized children and youth? The consumer/survivor-led research movement has made significant gains in answering these questions for the adult, but not necessarily for the child and youth mental health field. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the significance of psychiatrized young people setting and executing their own research and, ultimately, practice agendas. Presented are the outcomes of an evaluation of a participatory action research project examining the stigma of mental illness conducted with seven psychiatrized youth, 14 to 17 years old. The outcomes suggest our roles as practitioners and researchers need to shift from being ‘agents’ working on behalf of to ‘allies’ working in solidarity with young people to change the social conditions of their marginalization. The article concludes with the limits of consumer/survivor-led research for addressing adultism and, instead, ends with a call for decolonizing children’s mental health.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 251-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany St. John ◽  
Iulia Mihaila ◽  
Katelyn Dorrance ◽  
Leann Smith DaWalt ◽  
Karla K. Ausderau

Abstract Participatory action research methodologies may empower and protect marginalized individuals; however, they remain underutilized. Limited studies have investigated the impact of participatory action research, specifically on individuals with intellectual disability (ID). This study examines (1) the perspectives of co-researchers with ID on their involvement in the research process and (2) the feasibility of their inclusion based on perspectives of research staff (academic faculty and graduate students without ID). Three co-researchers with ID were interviewed regarding their research participation. Thematic analysis of interviews identified four themes: (1) Shared Experience of Disability, (2) Teaching and Guidance, (3) Acquisition of Skills and Knowledge, and (4) Value of Participation. Research staff reviewed field notes and identified benefits and challenges to feasibility of including co-researchers with ID. Inclusion of co-researchers with ID was found to be both meaningful and feasible.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Komla Tsey ◽  
Mark Wenitong ◽  
Janya McCalman ◽  
Mary Whiteside ◽  
Leslie Baird ◽  
...  

Since 2001 a team of academic researchers and medical practitioners have been collaborating with Yarrabah Men?s Health Group leaders to implement a participatory action research (PAR) process designed to support the men to (in their own words) ?take their rightful place? in contemporary Australian society. The formative stages of the PAR process and progress over the first 12 months have been documented in previous papers in order to provide much needed direction for others interested in undertaking similar community action-oriented research (Tsey, Patterson, Whiteside, Baird, & Baird, 2002; Tsey et al., 2004). The present paper addresses the need for innovative evaluation methodologies to enable participants in the PAR process to monitor and reinforce the small improvement they are making towards achieving their goals, and to maintain their vision for the future. Participation in men?s group activities resulted in modest but significant change in the men?s personal development and growth and in their response to family responsibilities. Men had the opportunity to dialogue and reflect on their gender responsibilities such as housework, which constitutes a major source of conflict in the family. Several men also gained the confidence and motivation to stand for local government. The study highlights the value of demystifying and making research more relevant to people?s day-to-day living experiences.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Boni ◽  
Aurora López-Fogués ◽  
Gynna Millán ◽  
Sergio Belda-Miquel

The aim of this paper is to analyse participatory video as a participatory action research method through the lenses of the capability approach. In order to do this, we used a participatory video experience that took place in the municipality of Quart de Poblet (Valencia, Spain) from February to March 2014. The participants were 11 young people between 16 and 24 years of age, severely affected by the economic crisis that has hit Spain in recent years. To develop our analysis, we introduced the participatory video as a technique and a process within the participatory action research methods. Then, we analysed the participatory process to verify the extent to which it had contributed to expanding the capabilities and agency of the participants. The evidence revealed a significant expansion of the awareness capability and, in some cases, of the capability for voice. In contrast, the capability to aspire and the agency of the participants were not expanded, due to contextual factors and the limitations of the process itself.


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