Participatory action research
Participatory action research (PAR) is a collaborative approach that combines action and research to drive meaningful change while generating public knowledge. It bridges elements of consultancy, change agency, and field research, focusing on improving situations through iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. A key aim of PAR is to build the self-help competencies of participants, empowering them to address challenges and sustain long-term improvements.
The principles of PAR underpin the development of practices across many fields. By emphasising experiential and reflexive learning, PAR helps individuals and groups adapt their knowledge through real-world experiences. This approach formalises the process of learning by doing, fostering collaboration while also supporting personal practice improvement.
My recent LfS post, Participatory action research: tackling today’s complex challenges, provides an overview of PAR, exploring its relevance in addressing pressing issues like climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, and social equity. The following links point to additional resources and insights to help you understand and apply PAR in practice.
Why use action research
Participatory action research: tackling today’s complex challenges
This 2024 site post provides an overview of participatory action research (PAR) as a practical framework for addressing interconnected challenges like climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, and social equity. It explores PAR’s core principles—collaboration, empowerment, and learning by doing—highlighting its adaptability across diverse contexts. Drawing on over two decades of reflection, the post connects PAR’s reflective cycles with adaptive management and co-design to foster meaningful and inclusive change.
Both critical and applied? Action research and transformative change
This 2018 paper by Emma L Westling and Liz Sharp outlines how doing action research in technical areas provides an opportunity for social science to present its perspectives outside of ‘normal’ social science contexts, supporting greater attention to ethical, justice and environmental concerns. Importantly, taking a critical action research to water management enables informed dialogue with technical decision makers and other key stakeholders – raising and pushing forward socially and environmentally progressive futures.
Ten essentials for action-oriented and second order energy transitions, transformations and climate change research
This 2018 paper by Ioan Fazey and colleagues highlights the need for action-oriented research and introduces ten essentials for guiding transformation. These include focusing on solution processes, practical knowledge, second-order experimentation, and reflexivity. While first-order modes of research remain important, the paper emphasises the greater need for second-order approaches. These include mode 2, transdisciplinarity, post-normal, participatory, sustainability science, and action research, which can accelerate learning and actions toward a low-carbon, resilient, and sustainable world.
Why action research?
This 2003 article compiles responses from the editorial board of Action Research to the question, “Why action research?” It examines shared themes and commitments among action researchers, highlights areas of disagreement, and explores future directions. Many of the arguments presented remain relevant today.
Seeking conceptual clarity in the action modalities
This 2009 article by Joe Raelin explores how action modalities, including action learning, action research, and action science, have evolved separately rather than uniting around their shared practice-based epistemology. It highlights how these approaches can stand together to advocate for practice as the fundamental unit of analysis. After outlining their histories and distinctions, the article identifies ten unifying elements that foster collective reflection, expand knowledge, and improve practice.
Participatory action research and its practice
Participatory Action Research, Planning, and Evaluation
This site founded by Jacques Chevalier, Daniel Buckles and Michelle Bourassa is dedicated to advancing authentic dialogue and sound inquiry among people committed to making a difference. It weaves together insights and lessons from critical, clinical and pragmatic perspectives on PAR, building on the common idea that research must be done “with” people and not “on” or “for” people. The approach they advance is not just another toolbox or packaged methodology, but is developed around the idea that every process must be designed from scratch, tailored to a specific purpose, timeframe and set of actors. This is a craft involving five skillful means – engaging, grounding, navigating, sensemaking and scaling. Their handbook is particularly useful and available for download.
Decolonising action research
This 2011 special edition of the ALARA (Action learning and action research journal) aims to capture some of the dilemnas, solutions and actions researchers experience in the decolonising space. This collection of papers demonstrates that researchers are not only undertaking research with and within indigenous and non-indigenous contexts, but that they are doing so in exciting and dynamic ways across a diversity of situations.
Action Research Resources
This site by Bob Dick provides comprehensive links and material to key action research, action learning and related resources. This site also acts as home to Areol, action research and evaluation on line, which is a set of on-line learning sessions provided (as a 15-week public on-line course offered each semester) as a public service by Southern Cross University and the Institute of Workplace Research Learning and Development. I did this course when it started some years ago … and can really recommend it.
Creating a Wider Audience for Action Research: Learning from Case-Study Research
This 2006 paper by Bodil Blichfeldt and colleagues discusses similarities and differences between these two forms of research practice. The paper also highlights some of the criticisms and challenges action researchers face. It suggests ways in which action researchers may enhance the discussability of action research by: (a) increasing the transparency of their research processes, (b) declaring the intellectual frameworks brought into action research projects, (c) discussing transferability of findings, and (d) defining accumulation of results. This may require an extension to scientific discourse. In particular, the paper suggests that action researchers could change the ways in which action research results are reported to increase their reach among a wider audience.
The Application of Participatory Action Research to Climate Change Adaptation in Africa. A reference guide
The primary aim of this 2012 Reference Guide is to provide a set of concepts and practical tools for use by those working to support stakeholders (communities, government agencies, policy makers) in their efforts to adapt – or to help others adapt – to climate change. The Guide nevertheless presents a generic set of concepts and tools that is likely to be of use to others working to address other development challenges requiring a multi-stakeholder learning-by-doing approach.
Participatory action research: Guide for facilitators
This 2014 guide has been written by Robert Nurick and Marina Apgar as a resource document for the training and capacity building of facilitators who conduct participatory action research (PAR) in the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS). This guide provides a road map for facilitators to support them in delivering a rigorous PAR process, providing them with guidance for effective facilitation that allows for critical reflection throughout the engagement process. The material in the guide is also relevant to other groups wishing to take a PAR approach to research and community development.
Chapter 3: The role of action research in environmental management
In this methodology chapter (from my thesis) I outline the underlying concepts of action research in more detail. Some differences between action research and mainstream science are then explained, particularly to justify its use as an appropriate methodology to address social and institutional issues related to improving environmental management. Some more practical details of practicing action research are then discussed. Finally the process of critical reflection in action research is highlighted, and an illustration of how it’s use in practice can help in getting people to think more deeply about the use of environmental practices is outlined.
A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems
This oldish (but still worth reading) paper by Heinz Klein and Michael Myers discusses the conduct and evaluation of interpretive research in information systems. While the conventions for evaluating information systems case studies conducted according to the natural science model of social science are now widely accepted, this is not the case for interpretive field studies. A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale. The intention of the paper is to further reflection and debate on the important subject of grounding interpretive research methodology.
A number of other pages and sections in this site provide information on related areas. There are, for example, a number of research approaches that support participatory and learning-based initiatives. Other specific pages look at how to manage integration in applied research settings and new thinking on managing participation and engagement.
