Participatory Action Research and Urban Social Work: Strategies for Navigating the Challenges of Participation and Reciprocation

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.

Hidden Homelessness: A Scoping Review and Avenues for Further Inquiry

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Community service learning in complex urban settings: challenges and opportunities for social work education

“…In order to create the conditions to support citizens' empowerment, students should use a participatory field or action research approach, using the principles of co-creation which refer to the active involvement of end-users in the various stages of the production process to create innovative public services that actually meet the needs of citizens (Van Acker et al, 2021). As Lorenzetti (2013) notes, to support an urban resident to successfully access a foodbank does nothing to challenge the inequalities and structural problems that have led to foodbanks becoming part of the European and international social fabric.…”

Lessons Learned in Meaningful Collaboration With Justice Involved Young Adults

“…Through carefully negotiated processes and methods, we aimed to enable the young adults to "tell their story" and articulate their experiences of professional services as well as their needs. We recognize concerns regarding the exploitative potential of such activity, which is well-documented in the relevant literature (Janes, 2016;Rowell et al, 2017;Van Acker et al, 2021), but meticulous attention to our underpinning principles, meaningful engagement, and peer identification, (most students being similar in age to the young adults (Banks et al, 2013)) worked to mitigate against such factors. Multiple methods of qualitative data collection were employed to capture the young adults' experiences, including group-care tasks, joint activities, students' reflective logs, focus groups, and interviews.…”