Articles
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH AND URBAN SOCIAL WORK: STRATEGIES FOR NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES OF PARTICIPATION AND RECIPROCATION
Authors:
Kaat Van Acker ,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Kaat
Kaat Van Acker is lecturer and researcher in social work at Odisee University of Applied Sciences and research fellow at the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven.
Erik Cleas,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Erik
Dr. Erik Claes is a lecturer and researcher in social work at
Odisee University of Applied Sciences
Harm Deleu,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Harm
Harm Deleu is a researcher in social work at Odisee
University of Applied Sciences and a Phd student in social
sciences at Antwerp University
Nele Gulinck,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Nele
Nele Gulinck is a lecturer and researcher in social work
at Odisee University of Applied Sciences
Liesbeth Naessens,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Liesbeth
Liesbeth Naessens is a lecturer and researcher in social work
at Odisee University of Applied Sciences and a researcher at
Antwerp University.
Mieke Schrooten,
BE
About Mieke
Prof. dr. Mieke Schrooten is a lecturer and researcher in
social work at Odisee University of Applied Sciences and
Antwerp University.
Tom Flachet,
Odisee university of applied sciences, BE
About Tom
Tom Flachet is a youth worker at the Brussels youth
organisation D’Broej
Ali Moustache
BE
About Ali
Ali Moustatine is a former youth worker at the Brussels
youth organization D’Broej
Abstract
Social work research is witnessing a growing popularity of Participatory Action Research (PAR), yet putting PAR’s commitment to participation and reciprocation into practice is complicated and poses many challenges. In this article we propose a model that identifies nine strategies to actualize PAR’s ethical principles of participation and reciprocation throughout the different stages of a research process. For heuristic reasons, we distinguish three research stages: (1) establishing a co-generative space; (2) engaging in a collaborative inquiry and (3) promoting parallax perspectives, which are
comparable to the stages of identifying and defining, designing and collecting, and analysing and reporting in traditional social science research. For each stage, we offer three strategies to address the challenges that researchers are commonly faced with in that particular stage and we provide examples of our own attempts to put these strategies into practice. The model presented here must not be seen as a set of normative guidelines, rather we hope that it may spark critical discussions on PAR in social work and inspire new and established participatory action researchers on their journey.
How to Cite:
Van Acker, K., Cleas, E., Deleu, H., Gulinck, N., Naessens, L., Schrooten, M., Flachet, T. and Moustache, A., 2021. PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH AND URBAN SOCIAL WORK: STRATEGIES FOR NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES OF PARTICIPATION AND RECIPROCATION. Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 1(1), pp.3–21. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/jsi.664
Published on
11 Feb 2021.
Peer Reviewed
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