María Elena Torre

Envisioning Participatory Action Research Entremundos

Living between social worlds and inside multiple positionalities, we have found ourselves drawn to notions that capture the in-between-ness of our lives. As researchers, we ally ourselves with participatory action research (PAR), an epistemological stance building on Lewinian and Freierian traditions, which calls for research and/as action towards liberatory projects (Ayala, 2007; Torre et al., 2008). In this commentary, we consider feminist/womanist interpretations of PAR through the conceptual lens of Borderlands scholarship as articulated by the late Gloria Anzaldúa. This dialogue begins with two separate entrances: one into the theoretical world of Anzaldúa, the other into PAR as method and epistemology. From these two entradas, we move through three conceptual cross-over points, exploring Anzaldúa’s notions of multiplicity, choques and nos-otras.1 We close with an attempt to articulate a PAR Entremundos, borrowing Anzaldúa’s (2002) concept of between worlds, to demonstrate how Borderlands scholarship might be useful in delineating aspects of PAR that press us in the direction of liberation, and away from the ways PAR has been abused and co-opted (Cooke and Kothari, 2001).

IV. Revolutionary Sexualities

Fifteen years after Fine’s (1988) ‘Missing Discourse of Desire’, little has changed in the American classroom. Desire that is not heterosexual, reproductive, or practised within the ‘bonds of marriage’ is not up for discussion, with one-third of US schools providing reproductive information described as ‘abstinence-only’ (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2000). Despite the decline in teenage pregnancy and the fact that 80 percent of Americans favour comprehensive sexuality education (Hickman-Brown Public Opinion Research, 1999), the US federal government, pressured by the Christian Right, has made ‘abstinence-only-until-marriage programs’ a national priority, with proposed funding reaching more than one billion dollars in 2005 (Planned Parenthood of New York City [PPNYC], 2004). ‘Abstinence-only’ sex education is just one instance of a national shift toward an education in consequences rather than possibilities, resulting in a loss of exploratory spaces for critical intellectual engagement which have far-reaching social psychological and political implications. Wilhem Reich, in his theory of fascism (1980[1933]), argued early on that the social suppression of sexuality – by the family, the state and religion – develops into a generalized repression of rebellion that goes beyond the internal monitoring of sexuality and desire to include the monitoring and repression of revolutionary thoughts and actions. Decades later, Audre Lorde (1984[1978]) similarly argued that:

Participatory Action Research in Social Research

Participatory approaches to doing research have gained critical attention from across the behavioral and social sciences, as scholars, activists, and practitioners committed to social change work closely with communities to investigate their concerns, develop proposals for transformative change, and identify new questions to investigate. Rooted in principles of justice and democracy, participatory action research (PAR) is an inclusive, collaborative approach to research defined both by participation and a determination to produce knowledge in the interest of social change. Within the social sciences, PAR is a stance committed to engaging knowledge and expertise beyond the ‘ivory tower’ by involving those who are most intimately affected by the research in shaping the research questions, framing interpretations, and designing meaningful research products and actions.

Promise and Provocation: Humble Reflections on Critical Participatory Action Research for Social Policy.

This essay reflects on the promise and challenges of community-engaged, critical participatory action research (CPAR) hinged to social policy in times of racialized state violence and massive community resistance. With cautious optimism, we argue for the potential of CPAR to facilitate more just social policy, by enhancing research validity, policy integrity, and organizing capacity. Drawing on a series of CPAR projects, we also raise a series of ethical, political, and power-laden dilemmas we have encountered in this work and offer, with humility, provisional solutions for advancing activist-scholarship linked in struggle with communities under siege.