Collecting Useful Information

To the extent that decision making is based on information, the control and ownership of information is the same as the control of power. It is the purpose of Participatory Action Research (PAR) to help establish people's countervailing power by enabling them to collect, control, own and use the information which affects their lives.

The standard sources and techniques of information collection includes - open interviews, direct systematic observation, field diaries, data filing, photography, cartography, statistics, sound recording, primary and secondary source materials and notarial, regional and national archives. PAR uses these when appropriate but it goes beyond them in four main ways.

Collective Research

Information is collected and systematized using group techniques and is validated and valued in accordance with the world view of the local people.

Techniques here include: meetings, socio-dramas, public assemblies, committees, fact finding trips.

Critical Recovery of History

There will be an "official" history which might include mention of the people but this might well need to be complemented, clarified or corrected by gathering together local material and resources from the collective memory.

Sources would include popular stories, oral traditions, family mementos, and interviews with older people who were witnesses to historical events.

Valuing and Applying Folk Culture

The purpose here is to recognize, consider and, where relevant, promote local core value systems, especially where these relate to local political practice.

The media of communication would include: art, music, drama, sports, beliefs, myths, story telling.

Production and Diffusion of New Knowledge

New ideas and messages which are generated by PAR have to be communicated before they can be put into action.

Pragmatics dictate that the same idea or message should be presented in different ways (oral, visual, written etc) depending on the age, sex, level of political consciousness and linguistic style of the particular audience.

Presentation styles would include: image, sound, painting, gestures, mime, photographs, radio and TV programmes, popular theatre, a/v materials, poetry, music, puppets, exhibitions.

The new knowledge might also lead to the formation of new forms of organization for economic and social action eg cooperatives, trade unions, leagues, cultural centres, action units, workshops, training centres etc

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