Participatory Case Study

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Participatory research is fully collaborative and emphasizes deliberate participation, contribution, empowerment, and emancipation of all relevant parties in actively examining some issue that participants experience as problematic. An outcome of the research process is to change and improve the social situation under investigation. Participatory case research is designed to address specific issues identified by local people, and the results are directly applied to the problems at hand. Therefore, it is ideally done by the local people and for the local people. It has emerged in recent years as a significant methodology for intervention, [Page 659]development, and change within communities and groups. It is now promoted and implemented by many international development agencies.

The guiding principles underlying participatory case research are summarized in the following list.

• Participatory research is fundamentally conceptualized as a social action, change-oriented methodology. It promotes a dialogue between the local, “insider” understandings of participants in a social context who are dissatisfied with the status quo and want change, and the general, “outsider” understandings of social scientists and researchers. Meaningful participation ensures that all partners are invested in the project results.
• There is an assumption of coequal status of practitioner knowledge and expert knowledge.
• The formal boundaries between the traditional roles (researcher–subject/participant, knowledge producer–knowledge consumer, etc.) are reduced or eliminated in favor of a variety of interchangeable egalitarian roles. The research process is designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of all participants.
• The goal of the research process is to produce authentic knowledge that will directly benefit the participants and the program and/or community that is the focus of the case.
• The methods and techniques used are sensitive to the culture, history, emotional life, and language of the coresearcher (the participant/program/ community). Consistent and persistent attempts are made to make the research activity inclusive to those participating at every step of the process. Project findings include the voices and interpretations of all collaborators.
• When combined with the cyclical, iterative processes of action research, participatory case studies incorporate concurrent and reciprocal levels of inquiry, observation, dialogue, and reflection with the traditional processes of case study research.
• All accounts and reports reflect the perceptions of all stakeholders and are written in clear, everyday language.

Values place a central and salient role in participatory research. Explicit values embedded in this methodology are described in the following list.

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