Carpe the academy: Dismantling higher education and prefiguring critical utopias through action research

Abstract

General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms than shut down, diverse possibilities and democratic debate around this. We focus on critical utopian action research and systemic action research as illustrative of key qualities of prefigurative and critical utopian engagement with educational presents and futures. We conclude that the capture of the university by neoliberal logics can be resisted and challenged through radical methodologies, like action research, which explicitly set out to be ongoingly anti-hegemonic, critical, self-reflexive, pluralistic, and non-recuperative (Firth, 2013;Garforth, 2009).

Merging the arts and sciences for collaborative sustainability action: a methodological framework

“…In this methodological framework, collaborative action was an outcome of participatory processes grounded in the tradition of action research. Action research traditions, including PAR and likeminded variations (e.g., community-based participatory action research; transdisciplinary action research; critical utopian action research; systemic action research), are simultaneously dedicated to research and social change (Gayá and Brydon-Miller 2017;Kindon et al 2007;Stokols 2006). For example, prefigurative action research-an orientation that was influential in both case studies-has been described as an approach to research that aims to study something in order to change it (Kagan and Burton 2000).…”

How Does Participatory Action Research Generate Innovation? Findings from a Rapid Realist Review

“…Perhaps some of the most influential threads from the global South which are relevant to how PAR is understood as a programming modality in the development sector, come from Latin American traditions, when, during the 1960s and 1970s, critical pedagogy evolved through a commitment of scholars to work with social movements towards political transformation. Work popularised by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, steps away from the idea that oppressed individuals are blank slates onto which knowledge and resources can be deposited (Freire 1970). Instead, it starts with the assumption that all people have knowledge and expertise in their own lives and that by facilitating dialogue between people, they can become agents of their own liberation.…”

“…As such, PAR creates a space for researchers and community members that share the same concern and to work together. These three elements of PAR separate it from other forms of research with communities around development challenges, such as collaborative research, community development, and applied research (Bradbury 2015;Burns 2018;Chevalier and Buckles 2019;Chiu 2006;Freire 1970;Heron and Reason 2001;Rowell et al 2015;Taylor Aiken 2017). It differs from communitybased development in that PAR intends to also produce knowledge that can be shared more widely (either through academic or other means), as opposed to only implementing actions and creating change with community members.…”

“…Being power aware and navigating power balances within the group is needed to help build trust as power imbalances can obstruct dialogue. Addressing power imbalances involves acknowledging that each individual has their own abilities and strengths, humility to not feel better than others, and love (Freire 1970).…”

Unrooting Management Education and Entrepreneurial Self From Neoliberal Demands: An Action Research Approach

“…In this space, they could understand complex organizational problems with the support of caring supervisors and in so doing dislodge themselves this from the neoliberal agenda. We invited students to develop entrepreneurship skills based on both emancipation and the development of practical reasoning (Gayá & Brydon-Miller, 2017; Kemmis, 2008; Winkler et al., 2018). We wanted to determine how that form of collective self-reflection, a self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants (our students and us) in social situations, would allow us to improve the moral rationality and justice of our own practices and how it would improve our understanding of these practices and of the situations in which they are carried out.…”