Abstract
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is described in the literature as a valuable method for enhancing the power of marginalized individuals and communities by collectively producing knowledge to transform the inequalities they experience. This deviates from most social science research, where such actors are largely the subjects of data extraction. This paper reports on our experience of using PAR to examine existing food systems and ideas regarding ‘just food system transitions’ alongside Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Brazil, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom, and Zambia. We describe our efforts to encourage these partners to participate in research design, data collection, and analysis in line with PAR ideals. Our experience fell short of our expectations for a PAR project. While some limitations relate to the Covid-19 pandemic, this paper focuses on the structures of contemporary neoliberal academia, which, we found, actively obstructed the realization of the optimistic claims of the PAR literature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 478-498 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Qualitative Research |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 17 Jun 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2025 |
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the British Academy (grant number VSFoFJT\100015).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| British Academy | VSFoFJT\100015 |
Keywords
- Participatory Action Research
- Neoliberal University
- Food Systems
- Just Transition
- Non-Governmental Organizations
Access to Document
- Millar_etal_QR_Participatory_action_research_VOR
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