Participatory Research and Community Organizing

Abstract

The paper summarizes the political economy of knowledge production in an increasingly privatized, postindustrial world of knowledge society. This analysis is linked to the emergence of participatory research movements. It argues that the participatory approach to community research offers epistemology and methodology that address people, power and praxis in our postmodern, information society. The paper then describes how a participatory research project is carried out in community practice, articulating key moments and the roles of the researcher and participants. In order to develop this understanding further it examines the efforts of two specific projects and shows how knowledge production can serve as a conceptual entry point in community organizing through which people make choices, shape action, and create social movements.