Knowledge Democracy and Participatory Research
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Welcome to the Knowledge Democracy and Participatory Research Community. This community serves as a comprehensive repository of resources on participatory approaches, community-based research, and collaborative inquiry methods. Our mission is to foster knowledge sharing and support initiatives that empower communities to contribute to research, ensuring their voices shape the knowledge that impacts their lives.
Explore a wealth of materials, including case studies, policy papers, training guides, and research publications that highlight the practice and principles of participatory research worldwide.
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Item Revitalizing the teaching of participatory research in social sciences(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2005-03) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)At a time when social sciences are increasingly called to address questions of poverty, exclusion, and inequality, their teaching practices still remain bound by conventional methods. This synthesis report reflects on more than a decade of PRIA’s collaborations with universities and schools of social work, tracing efforts to bring participatory research into classrooms and curricula. It highlights how, despite growing recognition among practitioners, PR often struggles for legitimacy within academia, frequently reduced to technical tools rather than embraced as an approach to social transformation. Through mapping exercises, dialogues, and partnerships, the report uncovers both the obstacles and the emerging possibilities for revitalizing teaching in this field. In doing so, it positions participatory research not only as a method, but as a means of reimagining the purpose of social science itself.Item Citizen's report on water supply, sanitation and solid waste management in selected small and medium towns in India(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2008-12) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)"In many small and medium towns of India, the most basic urban services like water supply, sanitation, and waste management remain inadequate despite constitutional provisions assigning these responsibilities to municipalities. This citizens’ report, prepared by PRIA and local partners, presents the findings of participatory research conducted across eight towns in five states, where over 3,000 households and community leaders were engaged in documenting their experiences. By drawing attention to everyday struggles of access, affordability, and accountability, the report highlights both the gaps in service delivery and the possibilities that emerge when citizens actively monitor and communicate with municipalities. Rather than offering ready-made solutions, it positions citizen-led inquiry as a way of reshaping urban governance and opening space for more responsive institutions.Item PRIA's engagements with Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs): Initiatives in Community Based Research (CBR)(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2014) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)PRIA has engaged with academia in a multitude of interventions, bringing community and practitioner knowledge into the portals of traditional research institutions and processes. By doing this, PRIA has helped Higher Educational Institutions (HEls) realize their social responsibility towards a community's needs and aspirations. This document traces PRIA's work in promoting community engagement within HEls in India and beyond. The experience, garnered over three decades, have been classified into six categories to highlight the different forms PRIA's interventions as a facilitator have taken to build bridges between the world of formal research, the practitioner knowledge of civil society actors and the experiential knowledge of local communities. The experiences discussed in this paper are not intended to be comprehensive; a few specific interventions are described under each category to illustrate the nature of the engagements fostered and the practices promoted.Item Citizen engagement in urban governance: Lessons from small and medium towns in India(Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2009) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)With the rapid expansion of Indian cities came new pressures on governance, raising difficult questions about how urban institutions could remain accountable and responsive to citizens. This report focuses on the role of citizen engagement in strengthening urban governance in India. This study, drawing on case studies and field experiences, examines how rapid urban growth has reshaped city management and points to the possibilities opened up when citizens are given space to engage with governance..The analysis shows that while policies and structures for participation exist on paper, many citizens, especially those from marginalized groups, remain excluded from these processes due to a lack of awareness, resources, or institutional support. The paper points to the need for deeper trust and stronger channels of dialogue between citizens and city governments to make engagement meaningful.By placing citizens at the heart of governance, the study underlines how democratic processes in cities can become more inclusive, responsive, and effective in addressing the needs of diverse urban populations, positioning participation as the foundation of just and sustainable urban futures.Item Asia Pacific Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop - Next Generation Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation(PRIA, 2005-11-11) Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)Monitoring and Evaluation has become a buzzword and common practice in development programs throughout the world. There has also evolved, over the last couple of decades, specialized expertise, institutions and a body of knowledge in support of monitoring and evaluation. However, much of this monitoring and evaluation practice and theory continues to be utilized in a manner that is very similar to top-down models of development, which are currently being replaced by bottom-up participatory strategies. The ideas, principles and theory propounded primarily by the civil society organizations not only based on the critique of traditional evaluation approaches but also based on what seemed relevant and appropriate to promote conscientisation and liberalization of the poor and marginalized in a given concrete situation.