This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Google Scholar Articles by van der Riet, M. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Participatory Research and the Philosophy of Social Science

Beyond the Moral Imperative

University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Participatory research has a predominantly transformative and social justice concern. This article goes beyond the moral imperative of participatory research to address its potential to account for human action, the subject matter of social science research, through accessing its intentionality and sociality, and accounting for the complex and interactive nature of behavior. Two of the core principles of participatory research (participation and accessing local knowledge) are articulated in relation to dialogism and dialectics. The interpretive potential of the dialectical relationship between empathy and distanciation is discussed and illustrated in the novel visualization approaches in participatory learning and action. The article concludes with a critical discussion of the conflation of social justice concerns with claims to validity. It is argued that participatory research approaches enhance validity because they address the participative, social and relational nature of human action.

Key Words: participatory research • philosophy • human action • visualization

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?