Destabilising equilibriums: harnessing the power of disruption in participatory action research

ABSTRACT

This article draws on insights gained from three projects described as participatory action research (PAR) undertaken in the UK. What binds them together is that each project coordinator raised the issue of the under-representation of opportunities for disruption in the possible trajectory to knowledge democracy.

PAR places a relational process at the centre of the research practice. It brings together people with varied knowledges, perspectives and experiences and aspires to be a non-hierarchical, relational, collaborative endeavour. This challenges the traditional hierarchical hegemony of the external expert in research situations. Bringing people together does not, however, equate to shared agency, authentic participation and knowledge democracy. For different knowledges to be created previous knowledges need to be disrupted.The argument raised in this paper is that a neglected element of PAR has been the deliberate intent to nurture disruption within communicative spaces in relationally based engagements. It is posited that the disruption of beliefs and assumptions that underpin local actions, is an important enabler of other voices and knowledges being recognised and acted upon. The three projects described reveal how and why the harnessing of power through disruption contributes to creating a functional knowledge democracy for more radical change.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory
• disruption
• emancipatory
• co-production
• knowledge democracy
• partnership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. FC: Family Carer.

Additional information

Funding

This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme [Grant Reference Numbers PB-PG-0808-17269 and PB-PG-1014-35062]. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care; National Institute for Health Research: Research for Patient Benefit [PB-PG-0808-17269, PB-PG-1014-35062].