Learning from the experiences of others: An interview with Dr. Marja-Liisa Swantz
What is and what is not PAR? How can emerging scholars effectively use PAR methods to bring about community change and social justice? What is the future of PAR? These are the questions we had in mind when we decided to obtain answers by interviewing Dr. Marja-Liisa Swantz, a distinguished participatory action research expert whose […]
Read More...Hermosa Vida and increasing connectedness through community health partnerships
Partnerships with different organizations can be enticing when we — social justice activists and researchers – plan how to reduce inequality in health. Like many projects, Hermosa Vida, began with great enthusiasm as people from different agencies and communities conceived of a complicated plan in 2010. This plan involved the planting of seeds of engagement […]
Read More...Participatory Action with Refugees with Disabilities
Standard approaches to qualitative research often exclude persons with different types of disabilities. In 2013 and 2014, the Women’s Refugee Commission applied a participatory model to examine the intersections of sexual and reproductive health and disability in three refugee settings. Respecting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a rights-based framework to […]
Read More...Confronting espoused theories with theories-in-use: Challenges of participatory action research with marginalized communities in contributing to social change and theory building
How to counteract hundreds of years of ethnic stigmatization and exclusion that lead to marginalization and segregation for many? How can participatory action research (PAR) contribute to working against social exclusion? In this paper, we reflect on a PAR process conducted in partnership with segregated Roma communities in Hungary where local middle-class researcher-activists and stigmatized, […]
Read More...Action research with street-based sex workers
By Marta Graça Some years ago, during my trainee as a social worker, I worked in harm reduction with sex workers and people who inject drugs. I became sensitive to the lack of participation of sex workers in the design, implementation and evaluation of social and health services, in the academic research, and/or in the sociopolitical debate […]
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