Participatory Research

Background-African Americans are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer morbidity and mortality. Physical activity and healthy dietary practices can reduce this risk. The church is a promising setting to address health disparities, and community-based participatory research is a preferred approach.

"In recent projects I have used flip cameras with participants from ethnic minority communities who were recording their experience of adult learning as enrichment. In another project we used more expensive cameras in a health setting in order to examine what the priorities were for service users. The footage has had multiple benefits and we continue to develop the use of visual technologies and methodologies:

• to empower and support the participation of service users and clients;
• to provide evidence and documentation of outputs and project delivery;
• to support the creative personalization of service delivery;
• to inform project evaluation;
• to demonstrate accountability;
• to improve the accessibility and awareness of services;
• to influence policy and strategic development options;
• to foster dialogue between groups of people - both vertical (client to manager) and horizontal (client to service user)

The main body of this short paper evaluates eighteen benefits or advantages associated with auto-ethnographic methodology"

1 Action: Research should be more than just finding out; research should also involve an action component that seeks to engender positive change. 2 Participation: Research is a participatory process that requires the equal and collaborative involvement of the 'community of research interest'.

"1 Introduction
PRINCIPLES AND PLANNING FOR RESEARCH
2 Theoretical Perspectives and Research Methodologies
3  Selecting and Planning Research Proposals and Projects
4 Research Ethics
5 Searching, critically reviewing and using the literature
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
6 Research design: quantitative methods
7 Research design: qualitative methods
8 Research design: using mixed methods
9 Sampling strategies
10 Designing Descriptive and analytical surveys
11 Designing Case Studies
12 Designing Evaluations
13 Action Research and Change
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
14 Collecting Primary Data: Questionnaires
15 Collecting Primary Data: Interviewing
16 Collecting Primary Data: Non-participant Observation
17 Collecting Primary Data: Ethnography and participant observation
18 Collecting Primary Data: Focus groups
19 Collecting Primary Data: Unobtrusive Measures
ANALYSIS AND REPORT WRITING
20 Secondary analysis
21 Getting started using SPSS
22 Analysing and Presenting Quantitative Data
23 Analysing and Presenting Qualitative Data
24Writing up the Research
25 Planning presentations and vivas
References
Glossary
"

Community public health interventions based on citizen and community participation are increasingly discussed as promising avenues for the reduction of health inequalities and the promotion of social justice. However, very few authors have provided explicit principles and guidelines for planning and implementing such interventions, especially when they are linked with research. Traditional approaches to public health programming emphasise expert knowledge, advanced detailed planning, and the separation of research from intervention. Despite the usefulness of these approaches for evaluating targeted narrow-focused interventions, they may not be appropriate in community health promotion, especially in Aboriginal communities. Using the experience of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project, in Canada, this paper elaborates four principles as basic components for an implementation model of community programmes. The principles are: (1) the integration of community people and researchers as equal partners in every phase of the project, (2) the structural and functional integration of the intervention and evaluation research components, (3) having a flexible agenda responsive to demands from the broader environment, and (4) the creation of a project that represents learning opportunities for all those involved. The emerging implementation model for community interventions, as exemplified by this project, is one that conceives a programme as a dynamic social space, the contours and vision of which are defined through an ongoing negotiation process. r (L. Potvin). 0277-9536/03/$ -see front matter r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. PII: S 0 2 7 7 -9 5 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 2 9 -6

This article sets the scene for the other papers in this Special Issue on children's and young people's participation, by outlining the nature of the ESRC Seminar Series from which all are derived and by developing the main themes discussed at the seminars. The focus of this Issue is participation by children and young people as this relates to differing notions of social exclusion and inclusion. This article critically examines participation in the contexts of policy, practice, research and theory. In many respects the environments in each of these domains is supportive of increased participation, yet there is also much evidence of limited impact by recent participative measures and of disillusionment by many young people who have been engaged in consultation and decision-making. A way forward is suggested, which entails collaboration among all the key stakeholders including children and young people, connects participatory and social inclusion aims and mechanisms, and is committed to achieving tangible outcomes based on the wishes of children and young people.

The purpose of this article is to share some reflections on the long research experience I have developed with circus artists in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. These reflections revolve around the question of the contributions of social sciences, particularly anthropology, through research practices conducted in collaboration with artists. I am interested in rethinking the role of the researcher by understanding science from a conception in which commitment, collaboration, and participatory knowledge-building can potentiate research practices and, at the same time, create dilemmas and challenges. What are the theoretical-methodological implications of the roles we can play throughout a long research process? What are the tools we can use when conducting research on the fields we also participate in, socially and politically? How can we reconcile the time it takes to conduct academic work with the short amount of time it takes for events to unfold in real-time?

The inclusion of stakeholders in participatory evaluation in highly diverse, culturally complex settings remains a challenge, given issues of inequity, power, voice, capacity and skill. These challenges are well documented, but there is a relative absence of papers devoted to addressing them based on examples and evidence. In this paper, we report our review of 51 empirical studies of participatory evaluations conducted in the international domain, focusing on the methods of inclusion used in the evaluations. Our findings address "the who" (which stakeholders are included and which excluded), "the why" (rationales for participation) and "the how" (by what means and in what manner) of inclusion. We were struck by the scale of some development programs, geographically and in terms of the number of diverse program sponsors and stakeholders, and how this necessitated highly creative, innovative participatory techniques to ensure that anyone (and in some cas...

We hope that you can adapt and use some of the materials we have developed in your own workshops on community-based participatory research. We acknowledge the many shortcomings of our work, due to external constraints as well as our own limited experience, and would appreciate your feedback and suggestions. We would like to acknowledge the institutional, administrative, and financial support given to us by the Aga Khan University-Human Development Programme, funded by the USAID Releasing Confidence and Creativity project, for the development and delivery of this workshop.

This essay contributes to participatory critical rhetoric (PCR) by offering a Rancièrian
aesthetic approach to the rhetoric of social protest at the 2014 People’s Climate March
(PCM). Although the PCM has been praised for its democratic commitments to social
change, I argue that police reinforced a consensual aesthetic order that acquiesced with
the status quo by partitioning sensibilities of space and mobility. Demarcating acceptable
spaces for protest and requiring marchers to keep moving at all times enforced a
hierarchical aesthetic order that limited possibilities of dissensus. However, there was
one ephemeral moment of dissensus when all of the protesters stopped and observed a
moment of silence. This rhetorical performance temporarily ruptured dominant intelligibilities of police order and consummated new subjectivities, demonstrating the
radical possibilities of dissensus through silence for climate change advocacy.

Resumen Se presenta un trabajo parcial incluido dentro de un proyecto de investigación más amplio (tesis doctoral en curso) sobre el trabajo social crítico y la acción social que " Dones i Barri en Xarxa " desarrolla en el barrio de Sant Roc (Badalona) desde el 2003 y hasta la actualidad. El trabajo social de este grupo se cualifica a priori como un trabajo deliberado de los profesionales para el fortalecimiento personal de las trayectorias de las mujeres miembros y comunitario, para enriquecer la participación social en el contexto de un barrio periférico con desigualdades sociales notables. El estudio se realiza a partir de la perspectiva cualitativa y significativa de los partici pantes. Se trata de un proceso de investigación acción participativa con un enfoque emancipador fundamentado en las teorías críticas del trabajo social. En concreto, de esta comunicación se puede esperar una revisión reflexiva de la postura tomada por la investigadora dentro de este proceso. Se describe el valor relacional generado entre sujetos e investigadora tanto en su dimensión ética-personal, los flujos de saberes y experiencias puestos en juego, como también la postura política compartida. Si bien la perspectiva emancipadora de una experiencia local y micro de trabajo social no puede ignorar la necesidad de cambios estructurales importantes, reivindicados también por los movimientos " activistas ". Des del trabajo social crítico debemos aprender a celebrar, victorias, aparentemente menores y locales (Healy, 2001), dónde el valor relacional (capital social) creado entre investigadores y sujetos sea descrito como un resultado insoslayable de la investigación en ciencias sociales. La reflexividad ética de la investigadora en esta experiencia nos permite pensar sobre los riesgos del poder alienador ejercido por las organizaciones universitarias, legitimadoras del saber científico cuando no reconocen los saberes de vida, construidos en las relaciones col ectivas. La investigadora en este caso describe las dimensiones relacionales que emergen de este proceso

The key epistemological assumption in participatory research is the belief that knowledge is embedded in the lives and experiences of individuals and that knowledge is developed only through a cooperative process between researchers and experiencing individuals. There are various notions about the nature and processes of participation in this type of research. This paper focuses on specific processes that are used for a "genuine" participation by experiencing individuals as research participants. It also identifies processes that are critical for researchers to engage with, in order to become pro-participatory in their approaches to qualitative research. The paper draws on a particular project as an exemplar-"The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Project." This project uses various participatory research processes to elicit and include voices of health-care professionals, service users, and family members. The main objective of the research project is to develop knowledge for new forms of community-based practices for people experiencing mental health crisis. We present the participatory research methodology applied in this research, and discuss two sets of processes used to enhance "participation" in research-one set to encourage and elicit participation by research participants; and the other set to engage researchers in reflection within the participatory research process. This will mitigate the paucity of literature regarding the processes and approaches necessary to make participatory research truly "participatory" both for research participants and researchers.

Green Book on Participatory 3-D Modelling

Mapping and mapping tools, which consist of coordinates, geographical information systems (GIS), databases and software, enable the collection of standardised information (rivers, mountains, inventoried industrial concessions, deforestation rates, etc.). They cannot, however, fully convey the specificity of the geographic sites involved: their meaning, use and heterogeneity. Nevertheless, the latter remain characteristics of primary importance when one wishes to understand a territory in order to manage it in the most equitable and sustainable way possible.

3-D mapping offers new prospects aimed at facilitating the on-going process, while taking it a step further. The process used to transfer traditional indigenous knowledge to a map usually relies on technology. Indigenous and local communities are trained to use GPS and to chart geographical co-ordinates, and the information is collected, worked out and visualised by a qualified operator. As the Itombwe pilot exercise strikingly demonstrates, mapping in 3-D facilitates this transfer of information onto the map.

3-D mapping provides a visual representation on the scale of a dwarfed natural environment. Through the contours of its landforms it gives communities immediate cognitive reference marks. The advantage of the 3-D approach pertains first and foremost to its ability to mobilise participants in this way, as the model arouses people’s curiosity and presents a learning interest for all. As it involves the indigenous and local communities in the construction of the model itself, all the way through to its presentation, this approach allows them to create a final and physical product without any external intervention. This differs significantly from 2-D mapping, for which Itombwe communities would have to entrust the co-ordinates they have determined to map made by a GIS technician based in Bukavu. Moreover, by doing away with the technological aspect of GPS and the complexity of 2-D representation, 3-D participatory mapping places the various interlocutors and facilitators on the same level of understanding and perception of the territory. Consequently, this approach facilitates communication and the reaching of consensus in decisions relating to sustainable management, which can be made based upon the mapping exercise. Finally, the process legitimises the decisions made and makes them sustainable, owing to the fact that it allows an ownership of the process not only by the “elite” of the trained community cartographers, but also by all members of the community, including the youth and the elders, both men and women. Through the exercise, elders have the opportunity to transfer knowledge to the younger generation and to perpetuate lessons of the past, while all community members can be proud of having contributed to the creation of the map.

Human societies have a long history of incorporating elements of the past into the present; never more has this been the case than today. For centuries, if not millennia, creative artists and writers, architects and fashion designers, publicists and advertisers have borrowed freely from the tangible and intangible heritage of other times and places. There is plentiful evidence of how fundamentally human achievement has depended upon the transmission of knowledge across cultures....In the context of increasingly rapid and global diffusion of tradition-specific images, ideas, and material culture, it is now often a default assumption that ancient objects and images are elements of a shared legacy of humanity.  In this spirit, a growing contingent of scholars and activists aggressively defend the free flow of ideas, images, and knowledge—within and between societies, ancient and modern—on grounds that this is essential to innovation and creativity. Proponents of the Open Access and A2K movements speak of the importance of sharing the world’s vast knowledge, while scholars such as Laurence Lessig, James Boyle, and Kembow McLeod (among others) point to the stifling effects of restrictions on open exchange. Frequently the advocates of open access draw attention to benefits that flow to the source communities and cultures (or their descendants), as well as to the recipients who draw inspiration from the cultural heritage of others. Even if economic benefits don’t flow equitably, so the argument goes, the open exchange of tradition-specific objects, practices, ideas, and knowledge may play an ambassadorial role, fostering cross-cultural understanding and respect....

Using a personal anecdotal style, this paper describes ethical conflicts that occurred during a study conducted in a kindergarten classroom in which the researcher was a passive observer. The paper is framed around an incident observed by the researcher in which a kindergarten student was stigmatized as an outsider and mistreated by his peer group. The discussion of the researcher's role as a passive observer in a classroom stresses the need to capture the natural social setting of the classroom. The paper explores the ethical paradox of passive observation research. By avoiding intervention on behalf of a victim, a researcher can maintain objectivity and provide descriptions and analyses that have the potential to ultimately help victims; or a researcher can assist a victim in a sample of subjects being studied, but will thereby alter descriptions and analyses. (MM)

Vegetation degradation, especially the disappearance of woody vegetation and a diminished grass cover, has aroused the concern of the Maasai community (semi-nomadic pastoralists) of Kajiado District, Kenya. The district is one of Kenya's arid and semi-arid districts. Over recent years, they have observed their land resources deteriorate due to the desertification process caused by the land use practices of man. They have identified indicators of desertification such as increase of bare lands, which have been invaded by previously unknown grasses and weeds that are of no economic value, and also the disappearance of some useful plant species. It is due to the above concerns that a group of 30 farmers have been very keen to participate in on-farm research to strategize on ways to halt and even reverse the desertification process. The participatory research has identified useful trees that the farmers have been planting around homesteads, as woodlots on their farms to provide woodfuel, shade, and to act as windbreaks. They have also identified species for planting as live fences instead of using thorny tree branches as fencing material, which contributes further to the desertification process. Due to the termite menace on young tree seedlings, the farmers use indigenous knowledge to prepare concoctions using locally available materials, which they apply to planting holes and on seedlings. During awareness campaigns, the farmer research group highlights the need to conserve vegetation resources and also expounds on the concept of planting two trees after one is felled.

For someone with a training in social anthropology or sociology a title 'Psycho-social influences on food choice: implications for dietary change' immediately looks a bit odd. The title may seem obvious and perfectly straightforward to some, and in certain respects it is. However, others who look at it from another disciplinary point of view will hesitate; it does not get things quite right. So what I have tried to do in this short paper is describe the sociological attitude which gives rise to this hesitation.

This book examines the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people as they transition to adulthood under the shadow of migration control. Drawing on unique longitudinal data, it illuminates how they conceptualize wellbeing for themselves and others in contexts of prolonged and politically induced uncertainty.

The authors offer an in-depth analysis of the experiences of over one hundred unaccompanied young migrants, primarily from Afghanistan, Albania and Eritrea. They show the lengths these young people will go to in pursuit of safety, security and the futures they aspire to.

Interdisciplinary in nature, the book champions a new political economy analysis of wellbeing in the context of migration and demonstrates the urgent need for policy reform.

“One of the most powerful and important books you will read. An essential text for anyone interested in migration and the human rights of young people.” Felicity Thomas, University of Exeter

“This book offers a profound analysis of the concept of wellbeing for migrant youths, especially how they are affected by politics-driven public policies. It makes their voices – about their hurdles, strengths, fears and hopes – loud and clear.” François Crépeau, McGill University

“A perceptive and nuanced study of the circumstances of unaccompanied child migrants in England and in Italy. The authors provide a powerful case for radical rethinking of current approaches to the protection of children.” Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard Law School

Much has been written about participatory approaches in planning and implementing research. The process and practice of participatory data interpretation and analysis is, however, less discussed. This article explores the value of the Voice-Centred Relational (VCR) method of data analysis and interpretation in the context of participatory research with socially excluded teenagers. Focussing on participatory data analysis, the implemen- tation of the method with teenagers in a West of Ireland town who have left school early is described. Written from the perspectives of academic researchers, members of a research team that included teenagers and a Community Arts artist, this article introduces the VCR method and describes the participatory processes, practices and pitfalls. The challenges of doing participatory interpretation with VCR method are considered.

The Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series seeks to encourage debate outside mainstream policy and conceptual frameworks on the future of food, farming, land use and human well-being. The opportunities and constraints to regenerating local food systems and economies based on social and ecological diversity, justice, human rights, inclusive democracy, and active forms of citizenship are explored in this Series. Contributors to the Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series are encouraged to reflect deeply on their ways of working and outcomes of their research, highlighting implications for policy, knowledge, organisations, and practice.

This paper presents lessons from applying an innovative approach for linking smallholder farmers to markets. This approach entitled, Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) focuses on strengthening the capacity of smallholder, resource-poor farmers to access market opportunities and actively engaging in them with the aim of creating an entrepreneurial culture in rural communities, where farmers "produce what they can market rather than trying to market what they produce". The approach focuses on fostering inclusion of rural women and the poor in analyzing and accessing market opportunities (domestic, regional and international), using a territorial approach to agro-enterprise development. The paper provides a general overview of the approach, the guiding principles, conceptual framework and steps in the ERI process. The paper also gives detailed examples of the five key components: participatory market research, farmer participatory research and its links to natural resource management, social and human capital, gender equity and participatory monitoring and evaluation. Lessons, experiences and challenges from testing this novel approach with a range of research and development partners in eastern and southern Africa are presented. The paper also summarizes some key research findings from a series of impact studies. This paper is a critical selfreflection of our intellectual journey testing and applying the ERI approach.

Radio is an old medium that seems to struggle to renew itself. With the switchover from analogue to digital and the necessity to keep up with consumer demand and expectations, radio has been regularly deemed to be obsolete. Radio as a primetime media died, but radio also morphed into something else. During the French occupy movement Nuit Debout in April 2016, people who were walking around Place de la République-the Parisian heart of the protest-might have been surprised to discover Radio Debout ("radio stand up"). Why one should contribute to such a radio when Internet and social networks prevail? With the idea that micro-radio broadcasting holds the potential to empower ordinary people at the local community level, radio-activism is tinkering its way back against the overriding force of computer-mediated technologies. An earlier version of this piece appeared on inaglobal.fr, the online journal of the French National audiovisual institute (INA).

« Revolt on the air - Radio Activism, Protest and French Politics », Explosivepolitics.com, 28/12/2016, http://explosivepolitics.com/blog/revolt-on-the-air-radio-activism-protest-and-french-politics/

Appendix of the article : Godrie, B, Boucher, M, Bissonnette, S, Chaput,
P, Flores, J, Dupéré, S, Gélineau, L, Piron, F and Bandini, A 2020. Epistemic injustices and participatory research: A research agenda
at the crossroads of university and community. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 13:1, Article ID
6703. http:dx.doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v13i1.6703

This paper presents and assesses a participatory research process that employed the Delphi technique to co-produce a sustainability assessment toolkit for upland estate management in Scotland. Upland areas in Scotland have a distinct pattern of ownership, with much of the land divided into 'estates' that are owned predominantly by a range of private individuals and organisations, as well as public agencies and nongovernmental and community organisations. Management objectives and land uses are wide-ranging and attract the interest of many different stakeholders. As a result, translating sustainability principles for generic, practical application in this context is a complex challenge that has not yet been addressed in an inclusive and participatory manner. In response, a reflective research approach engaged an anonymous, mixed group of academic and non-academic stakeholders over a four-stage, interactive Delphi process which lasted 18 months. The process produced a toolkit within which five principles for sustainable upland estate management and 12 corresponding 'actions' were translated into operational practice. The toolkit provided a sustainability framework for estate owners, managers and other stakeholders to assess progress towards delivering a series of practical actions on individual estates. The paper explores the implications of this toolkit for upland estate management in Scotland and reflects on the benefits and wider application of this type of research approach.

Within participatory geography and relational aesthetic art literature there have been calls to focus on how participation is framed, who is included and excluded, the types of relations involved and the effects of such practices. Linked to these concerns, questions have also been raised around how participants are framed and understood in participatory projects. For instance, as self-determining and knowing subjects who become politically affirmed through participation, or as subjects caught up in complex processes of becoming. In this article I show how the participatory art project 'Productive Bodies' in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, enabled participants to articulate the complex contradictions surrounding waged work, redundancy and unemployment. I suggest that participatory art projects can be a useful way for subjects to explore these complex processes of becoming. Useful because in this case, the project enabled participants to both acknowledge dominant disciplining discourses around waged work, while also creating space to imagine and enact alternatives to more dominant and limiting discourses. I argue that participatory art projects like Productive Bodies can help subjects move away from cognitive understandings of social change and political demands because the process understands subjects as always-already affected by wider societal discourses. Such an understanding recognises the complexity of subjectivities whereby subjects are both complicit in perpetuating and subjecting themselves to more dominant discourses, but also often desirous of change. Participatory art projects like Productive Bodies can enable subjects to articulate these complexities, while also catching glimpses of other selves and other societal relations through affectual-embodied encounters.

Comment l’Union européenne peut-elle parvenir à mieux informer et communiquer avec ses citoyens ? Quelles sont les initiatives participatives et délibératives qu’elle a promues à ces fins ? Peuvent-elles contribuer à atténuer sa crise de légitimité chronique ? Devraient-elles être institutionnalisées à l’intérieur du processus décisionnel européen?

Et si oui, comment procéder ? Autant de questions auxquelles cet ouvrage apporte des réponses concrètes, grâce à ses analyses – réalisées par des experts reconnus dans le domaine de la démocratie délibérative – des principales expériences participatives promues par l’Union européenne. En comparant les différentes tentatives d’accroître l’engagement des citoyens et en évaluant leur impact, cet ouvrage propose une contribution importante et originale sur le potentiel des innovations visant à renforcer la légitimité démocratique de l’Union européenne.

« L’Europe est à la croisée des chemins : soit elle développe la participation des citoyens en vue d’accroître sa légitimité politique, soit son existence sera menacée. Ce livre nous aide à mieux comprendre comment la première voie pourrait être crédible. »

Yves Sintomer, Université Paris 8, France

« Ce livre apporte une contribution opportune et originale sur l’efficacité des expériences délibératives au niveau européen. »

Lucy Hatton, Journal of Common Market Studies, 2014

Zusammenfassung
Im partizipativen Forschungsprojekt «Zwischen Anerkennung und Missachtung/Entre reconnaissance et déconsidération» (erd-zam) stehen Menschen mit Körperbehinderungen im Zentrum, die ihre Kindheit und Jugendzeit in Institutionen der Körperbehindertenpädagogik verbracht haben. Mit narrativen Interviews werden Betroffene aus der Deutsch- und Westschweiz zu ihren Erfahrungen befragt. Das Ziel ist, die Spannungsfelder zwischen Fürsorge und Zwang, Fremd- und Selbstbestimmung sowie Anerkennung und Missachtung aufzuzeigen. Vor diesem historischen Hintergrund sollen anerkennungsfördernde Strukturen und Unterstützungsangebote für die Gegenwart und die Zukunft herausgearbeitet werden.

Résmumé
Le projet de recherche participative « Zwischen Anerkennung und Missachtung/Entre reconnaissance et déconsidération » (erd-zam) s'intéresse aux personnes avec un handicap physique qui ont passé leur enfance et adolescence dans des institutions spécialisées dans le handicap physique. Par le moyen d'interviews narratives, des personnes concernées de Suisse alémanique et de Suisse romande ont été interrogées sur leurs expériences. L’objectif étant de mettre en lumière les zones de tension entre assistance et contrainte, détermination extérieure et autodétermination, mais aussi reconnaissance et déconsidération. Sur cette toile de fond à caractère historique, le projet se propose d’élaborer, pour le présent et pour l’avenir, des structures et des offres d’assistance encourageant la reconnaissance.

Online: https://www.szh-csps.ch/z2020-01-07

This article documents the work of parent-driven research teams in two school boards in the Greater Toronto Area. Motivated by a desire to move beyond a school-centred/family-centred dichotomy, this parent-lead project explores a middle space for collective learning among multiple stakeholders in publiclyfunded schooling. Drawing on participatory action research and social capital theory, I outline a generic research approach and then provide a more detailed sketch of one full research cycle focused on the theme of discipline. I evaluate the relative successes of the project and conclude by prioritizing the quality of relationships within the research. The parent-driven research at the centre of this discussion was part of a larger project situated in two elementary schools in two respective school boards in Greater Toronto. Since the 2005/2006 academic year, this broader research project has made a sustained effort to expand lines of communication between two schools and their families, most of whom are from linguistic, cultural and racial minority groups. The work at the schools began as a series of after-school, town-hall type community forums involving the respective school communities (parents, their children, in-service and preservice teachers, the school"s administration, local community agencies), and a university-based research team (a lead teacher from the school, myself as the principal investigator and two graduate student research assistants). Discussions addressed issues parents considered significant

This guide briefly introduces graduate students to the principles of participatory feminist research, with a focus on 'how to' research designing.

This guide is an abridged English translation of a guide initially published in French.

Produced under the direction of Myriam Gervais, with assistance from Lysanne Rivard. Design by Sofia Misenheimer

Democracy is in crisis. As neo-Nazis, right-wing populists, and authoritarians, old and new, stake their claims around the world, democracy faces its greatest challenge yet. The only way to save it is to change it.

Democracy as we know it is flawed. The three branches of power in liberal democracy—the executive, legislative, and judicial—keep citizens from making decisions about policies that affect them most. For a true democracy to flourish, argue Patrizia Nanz and Claus Leggewie, we need a fourth branch: the consultative.

This short and accessible guide to a new kind of political engagement offers a chronicle of the political past and present—including an important analysis of right-wing populism’s recent and historic allure—and a robust analysis of the accomplishments of protest movements and citizens’ groups. With a rare optimism, which values the wisdom of the masses over the narrow-mindedness of today’s tyrants, this guide is a modern call-to-arms for a more democratic future.

Students with intellectual disabilities are taking the lead conducting participatory action research (PAR) to chronicle their college experience as part of a national college access initiative. This research currently involves college students with intellectual disabilities documenting their experiences using multimedia tools. These data are then shared via a digital storytelling website, VoiceThread. This article presents an overview of PAR, digital storytelling, and the methodology used to implement PAR with students with intellectual disabilities. Themes from the students' work highlight their impressions of college, their adjustment to new expectations and responsibilities, and their recommendations to improve this experience. The researcher's findings and conclusions about facilitating research with young adults with intellectual disabilities are described.

This exploratory, qualitative study investigates the perceptions of Guatemalans regarding the impact of tourism and migration in Antigua, Guatemala. The vehicle of data representation is the research poem, a new and valuable innovation within qualitative research. The research poems presented were derived from twenty-two interviews with owners and directors of language schools and the Maya of Antigua. The sociohistorical factors that present a context to the data are also explored.