Participatory Research

Breitbart (2003, p.161) describes participatory research as “working collaboratively to develop a research agenda, to collect data, to engage in critical analysis and to design actions to improve people’s lives or effect social change”.

It is important to get away from the treatment of communities as “laboratories” (Breitbart, 2003, p.162)

Yes, I will be using participatory action research methods, which I will go into more detail on slightly later. Yes, I will be working collaboratively with various members of the community, including factory employees and factory owners. Yes, my research will be flexible to allow maximum input from participants. But, I don’t know what capacity my research will have to improve lives or create social change… I suppose this will be an output of the research, and until I actually arrive and start working with others, I won’t know the full consequences of the research. It goes without saying that I am going to have to be very adherent to ethical guidelines. More reading and more thinking is definitely needed!