Abstract
The article presents considerations for the placing of participatory research in the practice of sociology. The changing conditions in contemporary society have compelled social scientists to rethink the way social theory has been conceptualized and has been practiced in relation to social change. Modernist social theory, of which sociology is a prime example, has been imbued with the biases of the Enlightenment that privilege the essentialized male rational actor set above the ordinary people. As a consequence it has produced narratives and practices that are not in the interest of the people, especially those who have been dominated and oppressed. In order to live up to the potential of sociology as a vehicle for the improvement of social conditions, it must include the interest and the wisdom of the people in its researching and theorizing activities. It is argued that participatory research provides an opportunity to follow this course in sociology. Participatory research, it is contended, will lead to a paradigm shift in the social sciences because it is based on an expanded conception of knowledge and because it changes the relationship between the researcher and the researched and between theory and practice. Arguments are drawn from the history of science, critical theory, and postmodernist and feminist critiques.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beaudrillard, Jean. (1983).Simulations. New York: Semiotex(te) and Jean Baudrilard.
Beals, Ralph. (1969).Politics of Social Research. An Inquiry into the Ethics and Responsibilities of Social Scientists. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co.
Belenky, Mary F., Blyth M. Clinchy, Nancy R. Goldberg, and Jill M. Tarule, eds. (1986).Women’s Ways of Knowing. The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Best, Steven and Douglas Kellner. (1991).Postmodern Theory. New York: Guilford Press.
Brown, David and Rajesh Tandon. (1983). “The Ideology and Political Economy of Inquiry: Action Research Participatory Research.”Journal of Behavioral Science and Technology, 19(3):277–294.
Callaway, Helen, ed. (1980).Participation in Research: Case Studies of Participatory Research in Adult Education. Armsfoot, Netherlands: Studiecentrum ncvo.
Center for Community Education and Action and Center for International Education (1991).Participatory Research: An Annotated Bibliography. Northampton, MA: Center for Participatory Education and Action.
Crook, Stephen. (1991).Modernist Radicalism and its Aftermath. Foundationalism and Anti-Foundationalism in Radical Social Theory. New York: Routledge.
de Montis, Malena. (1985). “Participation for People’s Education in the Social Transformation of Rural Areas: The Case of El Regadio (Nicaragua), in Orlando Fals Borda,Knowledge and People’s Power. Lessons with Peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico and Colombia. New Delhi, India: Indian Social Institute.
Derrida, Jacques. (1976).Of Grammatology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
Descartes, Rene. (1968).Discourse on Method and Other Writings. Harmonsworth: Penguin.
Flax, Jane. (1990).Thinking Fragments. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Foucault, Michel. (1970).The Order of Things. An Archeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Vintage Books.
———. (1980).Power/Knowledge. Selected Interviews & Other Writings. 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon Books.
Fraser, Nancy. (1989).Unruly Practices. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Freire, Paulo. (1970).Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.
———. (1982). “Creating Alternative Research Methods: Learning to Do It by Doing It,” inCreating Knowledge: A Monopoly? edited by Budd L. Hall, Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon. New Delhi, India: Society for Participatory Research in Asia.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1975).Truth and Method. New York: Continuum.
Gaventa, John and Billy D. Horton. (1981). “A Citizens’ Research Project in Appalachia, USA.”Convergence, 14(3):20–29.
Habermas, Jurgen. (1971).Knowledge and Human Interests. Boston: Beacon Press.
———. (1984).The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1. Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon Press.
———. (1985). “Neoconservative Culture Criticism in the United States and Germany,” inHabermas and Modernity edited by Richard Bernstein. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
———. (1987).The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 2. Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hall, Budd. (1991). Personal Communication.
Harding, Sandra. (1986).The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Herzog, E. (1971). “Who Should Be Studies.”American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 41:4–11.
Horton, Billy D. (1993). “The Appalachian Land Ownership Study: Research and Citizen Action in Appalachia,” inVoices of Change. Participatory Research in the U.S. and Canada, edited by Peter Park, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd L. Hall and Ted Jackson. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Huizer, Gerrit and Bruce Manheim, eds. (1980).From Colonialism and Sexism to a View from Below. The Hague: The Mouton Publishers.
Jagger, Alison M. (1989). “Love and Knowledge. Emotion in Feminist Epistemology,” inWomen, Knowledge, and Reality. Explorations in Feminist Philosophy, edited by Ann Garry and Marilyn Pearsal. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Jameson, Fredric. (1984). “Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.”New Left Review, 146:53–93.
Kelman, Herbert C. (1968).A Time to Speak. On Human Values and Social Research. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Lander, Joyce A. (1973).The Death of White Sociology. New York: Random House.
Lather, Patti. (1991).Getting Smart. Feminist Research and Pedagogy with/in the Postmodern. London: Routledge.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. (1986).The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester, England: University of Manchester Press.
Park, Peter. (1969).Sociology Tomorrow. New York: Pegasus.
———. (1978).The Korean Community of Western Massachusetts. A Research Report. Pacific/Asian American Mental Health Research Center. Chicago, IL.
---. (1979). “A Methodological Critique of Ethnic Research.” Korean Research Institute Conference, Los Angeles.
———. (1985).Research Methods for Asian Minority Groups. A Research Report. National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD.
———. (1988). “Toward an Empancipatory Sociology.”International Sociology. 3:161–170.
---. (1992). “Creative Moment in Critical Pedagogy.” California Association for Bilingual Education Summer Institute.
———. (1993). “What is Participatory Research? A Theoretical and Methodological Perspective,” inVoices of Change: Participatory Research in the U.S. and Canada, edited by Peter Park, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd L. Hall and Ted Jackson. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd L. Hall, and Ted Jackson, eds. (1993).Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the U.S. and Canada. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Rahman, Muhammad A. (1982). “The Theory and Practice of Participatory Action Research.”IFDA Dossier, 31:17–19.
Poster, Mark. (1988). Jean Baudrilard: Selected Writings. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Rorty, Richard. (1982).Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Sanchez, Armand. (1971). “The Definers and the Defined: A Mental Health Issue.”El Grito, 4:4–11.
Sanz de Santamaria, Alejandro. (1987). “Epistemology, Politics and Development Economics: A Critical Analysis of a Personal Experience. Symposium paper delivered at the Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Smith, Dorothy. (1987).The Everyday World as Problematic. A Feminist Sociology. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Society for Participatory Research in Asia. (1982).Participatory Research. An Introduction. New Delhi, India: Society for Participatory Research in Asia.
Tong, Benjamin. (1977). “Asian American Culture and Mental Health: A Few Critical Notes.”Newsletter of Asian American Psychologists, 3(4):3–13.
Whyte, William F. eds. (1991).Participatory Action Research. Newbury Park, CA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Peter Park is currently on the faculty of the Fielding Institute.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Park, P. The discovery of participatory research as a new scientific paradigm: Personal and intellectual accounts. Am Soc 23, 29–42 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691929
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691929