Participatory Research

An accessible and engaging guide to the key principles and challenges of participatory approaches to research and advocacy, uniquely enriched by active inclusion of the perspectives of participants themselves.

A unique and engaging account of the practice and challenges of participatory research methods: doing research with rather than on participants. It fleshes out the key ethical and methodological dimensions of participatory research, drawing on reflections from the author’s own practices to root its coverage in real world experience.
Providing detailed commentary on key challenges, issues, and questions that emerge from participatory process, the book’s themed chapters discuss online participation, care, time, power, hope, money, creativity, precarity, and endings. Each draws extensively on the varied perspectives of researchers and participants and underlines overarching topics like the value of transparency, dealing with mistakes, and merging the varied expertise that underpins participatory approaches at every stage of the research process. The book also includes extracts from researchers’ fieldnotes and written reflections from participants, bringing a new richness to our understanding of the method and its potential.