Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry

The Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry traces the roots of the radical advancement of methods and gives space to exploring critical issues which need to be understood in order to do good participatory work such as facilitation, reflective practice power analysis, positionality and ethics. 

Most of the book is devoted to the methods themselves. Each chapter gives a detailed account of the method, critical design features, and detailed how-to steps contextualised in at least one detailed case study. This will equip the reader with the knowledge they need to actually practise the method. 

The Handbook is accessible via institutional libraries and available to purchase from SAGE. The first chapter is available to download for free here

On this page you can find news, events and blogs relating to the Handbook, as well as any free chapters available and resources that have evolved from the Handbook.

Take a look at the topics covered and the authors

Volume 1

Part 1: Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction: Navigating the complex and dynamic landscape of participatory research and inquiry

Sonia M. Ospina, Danny Burns, & Jo Howard

 

Chapter 2: Challenges in the practice of participatory research and inquiry

Danny Burns, Jo Howard, & Sonia M. Ospina

 

Part 2: Key Influences and Foundations of Participatory Research

Chapter 3: Key Influences and Foundations of Participatory Research

Sonia M. Ospina

 

Chapter 4: Paulo Freire's Influence on Participatory Action Research

Fabio C. Campos & Gary L. Anderson

 

Chapter 5: Tropical Empathy: Orlando Fals Borda and Participatory Action Research

Alex Pereira & Joanne Rappaport

 

Chapter 6: Theatre is Knowledge: Augusto Boal's theatre of the oppressed and participatory research

Effie Makepeace

 

Chapter 7: Pragmatism: Linking systems, evolution, and democratization in participatory and action research

Davydd J. Greenwood

 

Chapter 8: Feminism and participatory research: Exploring intersectionality, relationships, and voice in participatory research from a feminist perspective

Batsheva Guy & Brittany Arthur

 

Chapter 9: Indigenous ways of knowing and participatory research

Fiona Cram & Anna Adcock

 

Chapter 10: The history, legacy and future of participatory rural appraisal 

Mariah Cannon, Tessa Lewin, & Robert Chambers

 

Chapter 11: Achieving scope and broad participation in participatory research: The 'dialogue democratic' network-based approach of Björn Gustavsen

Erik Lindhult

 

Chapter 12: Becoming participatory: Some contributions to action research in the UK

Cathy Sharp & Ruth Balogh

 

Chapter 13: Towards ever more extended epistemologies: Pluriversality and decolonisation of knowledges in participatory inquiry

Patricia Carolina Gayá

 

Chapter 14: Action research - participative self in transformative action

Hilary Bradbury

 

Part 3: Critical Issues in the Practice of Participatory Research

Chapter 15: Critical Issues in the practice of participatory research

Jo Howard & Danny Burns

 

Chapter 16: Facilitating participatory research

Bob Dick

 

Chapter 17: Reflexivity and reflection in action research: ‘To locate, again, a through line to the future’

Patta Scott-Villiers

 

Chapter 18: Positionality, academic research and cooperative inquiry: Lessons from participatory research with Roma

Jekatyerina Dunajeva & Violeta Vajda

 

Chapter 19: The fine art of getting lost: Ethics as a guide to transformative learning in participatory research

Mary Brydon-Miller, Alfredo Ortiz Aragón, & Victor J. Freidman

 

Chapter 20: Holding space for emotions in participatory action research: Reflections from the experiences of a youth organisation exploring PAR through creative practices

Liv Kaya Aabye, Gioel Gioacchino, & Fiammetta Wegner

 

Chapter 21: Power analysis for social change: Participatory learning and action

Jethro Pettit

 

Chapter 22: The ethics of co-production in practice: Reflections

Helen Thomas-Hughes & Morag McDermont

 

Chapter 23: Approaches and creative research methods with children and youth

Vicky Johnson & Andy West

 

Chapter 24: Don't leave us out: Disability inclusive participatory research - why and how?

Mary Wickenden & Erika Lopez Franco

 

Chapter 25: Interpeace’s experience with participatory action research in contexts of active and post-conflict

Daniel Hyslop

 

Part 4: Methods and Tools

 

Part 4.1: Dialogic and Deliberative Processes

Chapter 26: Reflections on the Role of Dialogue in Participatory Research and Inquiry

Mariana de Santibañes & Sonia M. Ospina

 

Chapter 27: Reflections on the reflect approach and its multiple evolutions

David Archer

 

Chapter 28: A dialogical approach to knowledge: Grassroots experiences from the south of Mexico

Gustavo Esteva

 

Chapter 29: Feeling-body-thinking approach and methodologies: Towards transformations in intercultural justice

Juan Carlos Giles M.

 

Chapter 30: Art of Hosting frameworks and methods as participatory research

Jodi R. Sandfort & Trupti Sarode

 

Chapter 31: Cooperative inquiry as dialogic process

Jo Howard, Sonia M. Ospina, & Lyle Yorks

 

Chapter 32: Creating spaces for participatory social learning and change with young people

Barry Percy-Smith

 

Chapter 33: Influencing global policy processes through participatory approaches

Erika Lopez Franco & Matt Davies

 

Part 4.2: Digital Technologies in Participatory Research

Chapter 34: Digital affordances for participation and the participation-cube

Tony Roberts

 

Chapter 35: Technologies for citizen inquiry: Participatory research in online communities

Maria Aristeidou, Eileen Scanlon, & Mike Sharples

 

Chapter 36: Interactive radio as a participatory digital research method

Anna Colom

 

Chapter 37: Writing women into Wikipedia

Japleen Pasricha & Annette JE Fisher

 

Chapter 38: Real-time statistics: Working towards community participation with mobile data collection in Oxfam

Simone Lombardini & Emily Tomkys Valteri

 

Chapter 39: Participatory digital mapping as a research method

Jon Corbett, Logan Cochrane, & Yasmine Zeid

 

Volume 2

Part 4.3: Participatory Forms of Action Orientated Research

Chapter 40: Show me the action! Understanding action as a way of knowing in participatory research

Alfredo Ortiz Aragón & Mary Brydon-Miller

 

Chapter 41: Tools for action: Media research as collaborative action research

Bo Reimer

 

Chapter 42: Memorialab: Dialogue, memory and social healing in Basque Country

Iñigo Retolaza Eguren

 

Chapter 43: A participatory self-in-field inquiry method

Hanna Kurland, Victor J. Friedman, Israel Sykes, Ruth Danino Lichtenstein, & Tilda Melamed

 

Chapter 44: The “action” turn: People’s Praxis

Nathalis Wamba

 

Chapter 45: Awareness-based action research: Making systems sense and see themselves

Otto Scharmer, Eva Pomeroy, & Katrin Kaufer

 

Chapter 46: Storytelling as participatory research

Joanna Wheeler & Felix Bivens

 

Chapter 47: Community based participatory research: Embracing Praxis for transformation

Nina Wallerstein, Lorenda Belone, Ellen Burgess, Elizabeth Dickson, Lisa Gibbs, Laura Chanchien Parajon, Margareta Ramgard, Payam Sheikhattari, & Gillian Silver

 

Chapter 48: Research, organizing and policy change: Methods and lessons on the path from participatory action research to a right to counsel in New York City

Alexa Kasdan

 

Chapter 49: The role of collective analysis in generating ownership and action in Systemic Action Research

Danny Burns

 

Part 4.4: Visual and Performative Methods

Chapter 50: Collective becoming: Visual and performative methodologies for participatory research

Tessa Lewin & Jackie Shaw

 

Chapter 51: Arpilleras as participatory research

Sara Kindon, Katia Guiloff, Ximena Riquelme, Fernanda Piraud, Marcela Palomino-Schalscha, Carla Batista, Katia Cisternas, Maribel Marquez-Satyanand, Nadia Batista, Maria-Fernanda Bernal, & Ines Marquez, with Marlena Angermann

 

Chapter 52: Digital story telling and researching women's empowerment in Bangladesh

Samia Afroz Rahim, Sahida Khondaker, & Maheen Sultan

 

Chapter 53: Photovoice

Cathy Vaughan & Sarah Khaw

 

Chapter 54: Asset mapping as a participatory research approach

Elizabeth Lightfoot, Jennifer Blevins, & Amano Dube

 

Chapter 55: Theatre for development as a participatory research tool

Oga Steve Abah

 

Chapter 56: The Method of Enactment and the framework of Design: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Participatory Research

Catalina Alzate

 

Chapter 57: Extended participatory video processes

Jackie Shaw

 

Part 4.5: Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Chapter 58: Participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning: Taking stock and breaking new ground

Marina Apgar & Will Allen

 

Chapter 59: Promoting adaptive programming through outcome mapping - The ‘Resilient Adolescents in the Syria Crisis’ programme (SAP)

Jan Van Ongevalle, Ana Kvintradze, David Miller, Gaël Rennesson, & Jeanette Lundberg

 

Chapter 60: The Most Significant Change Technique (MSC): A case study of how MSC helps communities unpack intangible outcomes

Jess Dart, Sophie Pinwill, & Avega Bishop

 

Chapter 61: Participatory Theory of Change: Reflecting on multiple views of how change happens

Marina Apgar & Boru Douthwaite

 

Chapter 62: Can voices at scale really be heard? Reflections from ten years of innovation with SenseMaker

Steff Deprez & Irene Guijt

 

Chapter 63: Ripple Effects Mapping: A participatory strategy for measuring program impacts

Rebecca Sero, Debra Hansen, Scott Chazdon, Laura Bohen, Lorie Higgins & Mary Emery

 

Chapter 64: Reality Check Approach and Immersion Research

Dee Jupp

 

Part 4.6: Mixing and Mashing Participatory and Formal Research

Chapter 65: Mixing and mashing participatory and formal research methods

Pauline Oosterhoff

 

Chapter 66: Mixed participatory and formal methods in studying violence towards men who have sex with men in Viet Nam

Tu-Anh Hoang

 

Chapter 67: Transitional ethnic female bodies and kaleidoscopic methodologies: Participatory research, feminist geographies and multi-sited ethnography

Angela Santamaria

 

Chapter 68: Participatory research in healthcare

Maria van den Muijsenbergh, Tomas de Brún, & Mary O’Reilly-de Brún

 

Chapter 69: Building in complementarity: Participatory mixed methods in research, monitoring and learning in modern slavery in India

Sowmyaa Bharadwaj, Stanley Joseph, Anusha Chandrasekharan, & Pradeep Narayanan

 

Chapter 70: Participatory network research: Using visual methods and participatory statistics for value chain analysis

Christian Stein & Lena J. Jaspersen

 

Part 5: Final Reflections

Chapter 71: Participatory research and the need for transformations in a world in crisis

Jo Howard, Sonia M. Ospina, & Danny Burns