Participatory Methods: Principles, Approaches, and Reflections
This virtual special issue focuses on participatory methods. This is particularly timely in terms of thinking about how we as researchers work with our participants, the assumptions that we make about contexts in which we work, and the extent to which we impose our own world view on those whose lives we want to understand. Participatory methods have the potential for participants to help shape research in many ways – thinking about the purpose and focus, design, data, findings, and implications – yet this is not a straightforward process. The extent to which research claims (and achieves) “participatoriness” varies on many dimensions, and sometimes researchers' values about the importance of working in a participatory way do not translate directly into participatory action. The papers in this virtual special issue help us think about the broad principles of participatory research (Cumbo and Selwyn, 2022; Ngarachu, 2016), about the approaches we can take when conducting participatory research with examples to consider (Morgan and Sengedorj, 2015; Seale et al, 2021; Garnett et al, 2019), and to reflect on the process, the challenges and the complexities of conducting participatory research (Gristy, 2015).
Edited by
Jo Rose(University of Bristol, UK)
Liz Todd(Newcastle University, UK)