Dr Derya Özkul has a new article in the journal Migration Letters critically examining ‘participatory research’, including its practical and ethical problems.
The article reviews the literature and augments this with examples from fieldwork in Lebanon with migrants and refugees. Özkul agrees with the common critique around participation - that it is not an equal process for all parties involved - and reflects on the limitations resulting from inherent power imbalances between researchers and participants and among community members. She further argues that the “glorification of methods” alone disguises the politics and the one-sided nature of participatory research, and disregards the question of to what extent participants are involved in the construction of the methodology.
The article is online here: Participatory research: still a one-sided research agenda?
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