Participatory action research is presented as a social research method and process and as a goal that social research should always strive to achieve. After describing the key features and strengths of participatory action research, we briefly analyze its role in promoting social change through organizational learning in three very different kinds of organizations. We argue that participatory action research is always an emergent process that can often be intensified and that works effectively to link participation, social action, and knowledge generation.
ARGYRIS, C., & SCHÖN, D.Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1974.
2.
ARGYRIS, C., & SCHÖN, D.Participatory action research and action science compared. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participatory action research. Newbury Park: Sage, 1991, pp. 85-96.
3.
ARGYRIS, C., PUTNAM, R., & MCLAIN SMITH, D.Action science: Concepts, methods and skills for research and intervention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987.
4.
BENSON, L.The mistransference fallacy in explanations of human behavior. Historical Methods, 1984, 17, 118-131.
5.
BOURDIEU, P.Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. (translated by R. Nice). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.
6.
BROWN, L. D., & TANDON, R.Ideology and political economy in inquiry: Action research and participatory research. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1983, 3, 277-294.
7.
CLIFFORD, J., & MARCUS, G. (Eds.). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
8.
DEWEY, J.The child and the curriculum and the school and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956.
9.
DEWEY, J., & DEWEY, E.Schools of tomorrow. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1915.
10.
ELDEN, M.Sharing the research work: Participative research and its role demands. Human Inquiry, 1981, 253-267.
11.
ELDEN, M., & LEVIN, M.Cogenerative learning: Bringing participation into action research. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participatory action research. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991, pp. 127-142.
12.
ELDEN, M., & TAYLOR, J. C.Participatory research at work: An introduction. Journal of Occupational Behaviour, 1983, 4, 1-8.
13.
EMERY, F., THORSRUD, E., & TRIST, E.Form and content in industrial democracy. London/Assen: Tavistock/van Gorcum, 1969.
14.
GONZÁLEZ, J. L.Participatory action research: A view from FAGOR. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participatory action research. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991, pp. 77-84.
15.
GREENWOOD, D., GONZÁLEZ, J. L., with CANTÓN, J., GALPARSORO, I., GOIRICELAYA, A., LEGARRETA, I., & SALABERRIA, K. Culturas de FAGOR: Estudio antropológico de las Cooperativas de Mondragón. San Sebastian: Editorial Txertoa, 1991.
16.
GREENWOOD, D., & GONZÁLEZ, J. L., with CANTÓN, J., GALPARSORO, I., GOIRICELAYA, A., LEGARRETA., I., & SALABERRÍA, K.Industrial democracy as process: Participatory action research in the Fagor cooperative group of Mondragón: Social research for social action. Assen Maastricht: van Gorcum Publishers, 1992.
17.
GUSTAVSEN, B.Workplace reform and democratic dialogue. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 1985, 6, 461-479.
18.
GUSTAVSEN, B., & HUNNIUS, G.New patterns of work reform: The case of Norway. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget, 1981.
19.
HABERMAS, J., The theory of communicative action. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984.
20.
HARKAVY, I., & PUCKETT, J. L.Toward effective university-public school partnerships: An analysis of a contemporary model. Teachers College Record, 1991, 92, 556-581.
KLINGEL, S., & MARTIN, A. (Eds.). A fighting chance: New strategies to save jobs and reduce costs. Ithaca: ILR Press, 1988.
23.
LATOUR, B., & WOOLGAR, S.Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1979.
24.
MARROW, A. J.The practical theorist: The life and work of Kurt Lewin. New York: Basic Books, 1969.
25.
PASMORE, W., & FRIEDLANDER, F.An action-research program for increasing employee involvement in problem solving. Administrative Science Quarterly, 1982, 27, 343-362.
26.
REASON, P. (Ed.). Human inquity in action: Developments in new paradigm research. London: Sage Publications, 1988.
27.
WAYNO, F. Unpublished Case Materials. Cornell University Program for Employment and Workplace Systems, Ithaca, n.d.
28.
WEBER, M. In T. Parsons (Ed.), The theory of social and economic organization (translated by A. M. Henderson and T. Parsons). New York: Oxford University Press, 1947.
29.
WHYTE, W. F.On the uses of social science research. American Sociological Review, 1986, 51, 555-563.
30.
WHYTE, W. F. (Ed.). Participatory action research. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991.
31.
WHYTE, W. F., & WHYTE, K. K.Making Mondragón: The growth and dynamics of the worker cooperative complex (sec. ed. rev.). Ithaca: ILR Press, 1991.
32.
WHYTE, W. F., GREENWOOD, D. J., & LAZES, P.Participatory action research: Through practice to science in social research. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participatory action research. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991, pp. 19-55.
