Vivencia

The concept of vivencia is a crucial, and sometimes disputed, component of action research. Vivencia is often translated into English as ‘lived or life experience’. It is more than this. Vivencia is the essence of treating people as actors in their own lives and recognizing that what they bring to the table is integral to all research for social change. Vivencia acknowledges what people know and believe and uses their present reality as a starting point for all work. It then builds upon the existing knowledge as expressed by the most affected to continue to study for the purpose of engaging in social transformation.

[Page 806]Further, vivencia recognizes that what happens between people—the relationship that exists—is critical to an understanding of their world and their reality and equally critical to making lasting change to that reality. This means that the research process is demystified so that all are able to comprehend and actively participate as equals in the process. It permits research to be understood as a political process of rediscovering and re-creating personal and social realities, as well as producing new or recovered knowledge, allowing oppressed people to generate an assertion of their knowledge. Vivencia grounds all forms of action research in the belief that all persons have intellectual capabilities and the capacity to generate knowledge.

Using vivencia as a point of departure, Orlando Fals Borda suggested that the purpose of research is not just to build knowledge or test interventions but to take action towards social justice. This is referred to as the democratization of knowledge and has its roots in the vivencia of real people. Fals Borda further pointed out that an intricate part of this vivencia has to do with the relationships that are an integral part of the research process. In most research methodologies, there are hierarchical relationships based on submission. In action research, the relationships are of mutuality and partnership. Therefore, vivencia is a practice of participatory democracy that demonstrates the value of a commitment to full democratization in both content and method. This process is often feared by those with power. Fals Borda noted that the practice of reflecting upon the vivencia of the people and pursuing an agenda based upon that reflection leads to a process whereby grass-roots movements become empowered and those in power become alarmed by that empowerment.

In action research, vivencia is expressed when a group of people collectively enter into a living process, examining their reality by asking penetrating questions, mulling over assumptions related to their everyday problems and circumstances, deliberating alternatives for change and taking meaningful actions. The group has ownership over what questions are pursued based on its members' vivencia. Vivencia talks about how important the process of seeing and learning with both the brain and the heart is in creating a new society that is egalitarian. This means that those persons who previously were the focus of study, or the objects of study, are now the experts in their own lives and actively engaged in the research process. As such, Fals Borda recognizes that action researchers can be considered members of social change movements based upon a critical understanding of vivencia. These movements are engaged in practice—both research and action—that recognizes that those most affected by the injustices in society know more about their own situations and therefore need to be in the forefront of making change happen. Rather than having knowledge produced about them, they, too, are engaged in the production of knowledge.

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