Problematic Success: An Account of Top-Down Participatory Action Research with Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

This article focuses on the problems encountered while conducting participatory action research (PAR) with women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The term top-down means that the target population was defined and the research design was generated by a research team composed of academics and social services management rather than a grassroots group composed of women with MS. Overall, the research was a success; however, in the authors' experience, top-down–initiated PAR resulted in a number of problems including problematic assumptions, ambiguous relationships, and conflict. Inherent in top-down PAR designs are structural imbalances between professionals and nonprofessionals that are antithetical to the emancipatory philosophy and goals of PAR, imbalances that persist despite a researcher's commitment to PAR philosophy.

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