scholarly journals Community-Based Approaches to Reducing Health Inequities and Fostering Environmental Justice through Global Youth-Engaged Citizen Science

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 892
Author(s):  
Abby King ◽  
Feyisayo Odunitan-Wayas ◽  
Moushumi Chaudhury ◽  
Maria Rubio ◽  
Michael Baiocchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Health Inequities ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Scientific Endeavor

Growing socioeconomic and structural disparities within and between nations have created unprecedented health inequities that have been felt most keenly among the world’s youth. While policy approaches can help to mitigate such inequities, they are often challenging to enact in under-resourced and marginalized communities. Community-engaged participatory action research provides an alternative or complementary means for addressing the physical and social environmental contexts that can impact health inequities. The purpose of this article is to describe the application of a particular form of technology-enabled participatory action research, called the Our Voice citizen science research model, with youth. An overview of 20 Our Voice studies occurring across five continents indicates that youth and young adults from varied backgrounds and with interests in diverse issues affecting their communities can participate successfully in multiple contributory research processes, including those representing the full scientific endeavor. These activities can, in turn, lead to changes in physical and social environments of relevance to health, wellbeing, and, at times, climate stabilization. The article ends with future directions for the advancement of this type of community-engaged citizen science among young people across the socioeconomic spectrum.

scholarly journals Is Participatory Action Research Relevant in the Canadian Workplace?

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Candy Khan ◽  
Donna Chovanec
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Local Control ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Subsequent Section ◽  
Review Current

Participatory Action Research (PAR), with its emphasis on grassroots empowerment and local control, has a long history as the research method of choice for marginalized communities. However, unsettling questions remain about the nature of power and the promise of PAR as a truly participatory and empowering methodology. In this paper, we summarize the key theorists, principles, methodology, researcher’s role, strengths and limitations of traditional PAR. In the subsequent section, we review current critiques and revisions of PAR. Finally, Khan proposes an adjustment to PAR that reflects the strengths and limitations of PAR and the implications of applying PAR within the bounds of a capitalist social-economic structure.

scholarly journals Collective Voices: Engagement of Hartford Community Residents through Participatory Action Research

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Williamson ◽  
Karen Brown
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Collective Levels ◽  
Action Strategies ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The Impact

The article details a Participatory Action Research (PAR) Project that partnered Latino and African and Caribbean American residents with research educators from the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, CT. PAR has been used to engage marginalized people in the process of knowledge production and take action to change the oppressive structures affecting them. Project participants worked together to design research projects on economic opportunities and trainings for Spanish speaking residents, the social, environmental and physical conditions of neighborhoods, and the educational outcomes for Hartford schoolchildren; together they conducted research, analyzed and disseminated the results, and planned and implemented action strategies. This article discusses the process of developing a PAR project with different groups over a sustained period of time, reviews the results of from the overall project, and examines the impact of PAR for the participants. The analyzed and disseminated the results, and planned and implemented action strategies. This article discusses the process of developing a PAR project with different groups over a sustained period of time, reviews the results of from the overall project, and examines the impact of PAR for the participants. The critical results were the development of individual and collective voice, cross-neighborhood understanding and collaboration, and capacity building at individual and collective levels, as well as research and action results by residents.

Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim and University Researchers: Partnering in Community Health Development

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Luis Marcos ◽  
M. Rosales ◽  
Alexander Rödlach ◽  
John Stone
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Healthcare Research ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Working Together

Applied anthropologists value participatory action research (PAR). In 2008, the Society for Applied Anthropology bestowed the 2008 Bronislaw Malinowski Award upon Orlando Fals-Borda, who is best known for developing the theory and methodology of this approach and his leadership in social and political activism on behalf of and with marginalized communities. Fals-Borda argues that PAR encourages value-driven and collaboratively-conducted research that transforms the relationship between marginalized communities and the organizations that serve them so as to improve their socio-political situation (Fals-Borda and Rahman 1991). Comparably, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the US Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the value of community-based participatory research for both researchers and the community being studied (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2004:1). The Agency has emphasized the importance of academic professionals and community members working together in community-based participatory research as equal partners in developing, implementing, and using research findings to improve local health and healthcare. Community-based participatory research and participatory action research share many features.

Guiding School-Based Service-Learning With Youth Participatory Action Research

2018 ◽  
pp. 125-143
Author(s):  
Melissa Cochrane Bocci
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Youth Empowerment ◽  
Youth Participatory Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Positive Identity ◽  
Opportunity Gaps

Youth Participatory Action Research offers service-learning practitioners a critical framework for guiding their projects, particularly those engaging diverse or marginalized communities. A YPAR-guided service-learning project is youth-led, centers and affirms youth identities, examines problems and takes actions on structural and personal levels, and bases those actions on original, youth-conducted research. As such, YPAR-guided service-learning explicitly promotes youth empowerment and positive identity development, which can result in increased academic engagement and motivation, making such projects a strong option for attending to the opportunity gaps marginalized students often face in their school systems.

scholarly journals A History and Analysis of the Evolution of Action and Participatory Action Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-52
Author(s):  
Steven Darryl Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Specific Community ◽  
Joint Knowledge Production

Action research is a type of research which is conducted with research participants rather than on participants. This premise democratizes research, resulting in transformative potential, while addressing issues such as power and hierarchy which are present in traditional positivist research approaches, allowing those affected by the research to benefit from a more democratic research experience: According to Habermas, “in a process of enlightenment, there can only be participants”. However, as with social science research, or perhaps any method of research, there are different forms of action research which have evolved over time. This paper describes the worldviews that have informed the evolution of action research and examines three different forms of action research with respect to assumptions value, beliefs, and claims to truth inherent with each form. These three main forms may be thought of as “umbrella” terms for the forms of action research, with various threads of action research originating and continuing to originate from each form. Lastly, this paper explores one thread of action research-participatory action research. The reason for focusing on participatory action research specifically is that this type of action research has grown in popularity recently within social sciences research due to the opportunity for new insight for all research participants. Further, participatory action research allows for joint knowledge-production, may draw attention to previously neglected areas of qualitative research, and is therefore relevant to a specific community. For a researcher considering employing participatory action research, it is helpful to understand the historical and philosophical underpinnings of action research in general in order to better unerstand the specific intricacies and characteristics of participatory action research. 

scholarly journals Addressing diversity in science communication through citizen social science

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (04) ◽  
pp. A04
Author(s):  
Lissette Lorenz
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Sociocultural Diversity

This article seeks to address the lack of sociocultural diversity in the field of science communication by broadening conceptions of citizen science to include citizen social science. Developing citizen social science as a concept and set of practices can increase the diversity of publics who engage in science communication endeavors if citizen social science explicitly aims at addressing social justice issues. First, I situate citizen social science within the histories of citizen science and participatory action research to demonstrate how the three approaches are compatible. Next, I outline the tenets of citizen social science as they are informed by citizen science and participatory action research goals. I then use these tenets as criteria to evaluate the extent to which my case study, a community-based research project called ‘Rustbelt Theater’, counts as a citizen social science project.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document