The paper focusses on three aspects of our work with the urban poor: utilization of participatory research methodologies to elicit local knowledge in forms that do not require traditional education; building capacities to create active organized citizenry through catalysing Settlement Improvement Committees, which are representative bodies…

In this article we present and discuss experiences developed through a dialogue conference which we organised as part of a three-year participatory action research project related to primary education and agricultural education in Tanzania. We explore how dialogue conference as a research method can fill a gap between traditional ways of mutual…

Youth organizing combines elements of community organizing, with its emphasis on ordinary people working collectively to advance shared interests, and positive youth development, with its emphasis on asset-based approaches to working with young people. It is expanding from an innovative, but marginal approach to youth and community development…

This essay builds on and extends earlier research and writing that the authors have done, trying to understand how a commitment to local engagement, which is the term commonly used at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), becomes embedded in the core work of the institution. Their inquiries have been guided by social psychologist Kurt Lewin's…

Since its establishment in 2003, the Japan Council on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD-J) has paid close attention to informal learning processes in community-based efforts to promote local sustainable development. ESD-J carried out two projects to collect information on and visualise community-based ESD practice: the…

In this article, the authors highlight the potential for rethinking approaches to community and social change interventions that draw on participatory action research at the organizational and community level. They distinguish problem-centric from opportunity-centric approaches to social change. Theory on social norms suggests that problem-centric…

Highlander Research and Education Center, begun in 1932 by Myles Horton as Highlander Folk School, continues to provide adult education for empowerment and social change. Once active in labor organization and civil rights movements, the school now focuses on interrelated issues of economic development and environmental crisis in Appalachia. (SV)

A pilot sustainable-development project in Scotland trained community participants in participatory research and involved them in investigating local quality-of-life issues and presenting them to the community. The project revealed ways to improve the program by increasing involvement of local social movement groups and resolving conflicts of…

The Canada-Asia Partnership used participatory action research to promote participation of marginalized communities in development. It was hampered by the positivist research model dominating academic institutions and lack of clarity and consensus among stakeholders. (SK)

Action research is used in community development practice by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Outreach Division. They view the community as the curriculum, co-develop education events, and use the research process as a theoretical framework that ties action, learning, and outcomes together. (JOW)

The Canada-Asia Partnership, a community development project of Canadian, Thai, and Filipino universities, included continuing education workshops. Their cross-cultural, participatory nature successfully promoted learning and skill development and resulted in holistic knowledge production. (SK)

Describes projects of the School of Social Work at Central America University, Nicaragua: (1) development of a postgraduate course for professionals; (2) discovery learning and participatory action research in a fishing village; and (3) application of participatory approaches to rural development. (SK)

A participatory research process with inner-city unemployed people in New Zealand demonstrated that (1) consumers of social services should have greater input in policymaking and (2) consumers can work actively and collectively to effect change without blind commitment to a particular ideology. (SK)

Describes three projects sponsored by the International Community Education Association: (1) functional literacy for railway workers in Ghana; (2) youth farmers' community development project in Ghana; and (3) participatory research in a community education and development network in Sierra Leone. (SK)

Communication activities in participatory development programs include (1) theater for development in Africa; (2) workshops on cultural identity and politics in Colombia; and (3) Project DELSILIFE, improving the quality of life in Manila. (SK)