Summary
Have you ever been a part of a participatory research process or the use of a participatory method only to find that it fell short of any real shift of power dynamics? Have you ever compared notes with another participatory design researcher only to find out their definition of participatory research and design is different than your own? Have you faced opposition from your organization in practicing research in a more participatory way? What does research even mean, what is its purpose, and how does research change from community to community, context to context? Based on that, what are the future possibilities of research? Come, join the conversation, and see what Victor Udoewa has to say about such experiences, the different definitions of participatory research and how participatory research can actually be used to reinforce hierarchies. One way he has found to dismantle that system is to practice radical participatory research. He will share what that means, how it looks, and how you can begin moving in that direction along with a direct challenge to our community of researchers in regards to our own power.
Key Insights
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Participatory research is an ancient practice dating back hundreds of thousands of years, not just a 20th-century invention.
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Radical participatory research requires community members to outnumber professional researchers and own both artifacts and narratives.
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Power must be given up by researchers, not granted, because imposed empowerment reinforces hierarchy.
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Research facilitation is itself a form of power and must be decentralized to community members to shift outcomes.
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Cultural and experiential knowledge hold greater value than institutional knowledge in radical participatory research.
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Radical participatory research embeds trauma-responsive approaches more effectively due to lived experiences among team members.
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True empathy in research is nearly impossible; embedding community members with direct experience produces more authentic insight.
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Radical participatory research blurs traditional boundaries between research, design, and implementation in nonlinear ways.
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Equitable remuneration considers time sacrificed by community members and should be decided by them, extending beyond financial payment.
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Evaluating radical participatory research focuses on sustained power shifts within the team rather than just project outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"You people always come back to this place, always researching me, and I never see a single change."
"Land acknowledgments don’t change the allocation of resources, but remind us we cannot talk about alternative futures without talking about alternative pasts."
"When we empower others, we’re actually reinforcing the hierarchy we seek to subvert."
"Radical participatory research says cultural and experiential knowledge are greater than institutional knowledge."
"Empathy is an impossibility because of inherent power imbalances between researcher and participant."
"If you change who facilitates you change the outcome."
"Community members must be full-fledged members of the research team from beginning to end, no meetings without them."
"The pace of radical participatory research must move at the availability, trust, and relationship pace of community members."
"The project had failed three times before; people didn’t care about it, which made it perfect to try radical participatory research."
"Have a majority of the research team members experience a sustained and sustainable shift in power."
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