International Perspectives in Participatory Research(Unit 1)

Unit 1: Understanding Social Research

To understand what participatory research entails, it is important to be clear on the concept of research itself.  Here we will go through the various classifications of social research. We shall also look at what are the steps involved doing social research. Participatory research has developed to counter the critique of dominant research as being elite and cut off from local realities.  These are closely tied with the critiques of knowledge production itself.The Objectives of the Unit are to:

  • Understand the concepts of research and social research;
  • Explain the dominant social research paradigms;
  •  Grasp the issues in knowledge production and utilisation underlying conventional social science research paradigm; and
  • Appraise the critiques of the conventional social science research paradigms.
Last modified: Friday, 13 June 2014, 4:23 PM