678
Y. Rasyid
occurring in the midst of emergent structure. “Knowledge is always gained through
action and for action. From this starting point, to question the validity of social
knowledge is to question, not how to develop a reflective science about action, but
how to develop genuinely well-informed action—how to conduct an action science”
(Torbert 2001).
Stringer (1996), Brydon-Miller (2004), and Greenwood and Levin (2006) noted
that the PAR method focuses on the cooperative relationship between participants
and researcher and there is a permanent respect for knowledge of the participants and
for their ability to understand and address the issues. Literature has (Chambers 1997;
Cooke and Kothari 2001; Cornwall and Pratt 2003; Bleckley 2008) demonstrated that
PAR is commonly used by a whole range of community groups and NGOs (where
people already know each other and/or work together), and also by groups that come
together for the purposes of research and action on a particular issue.
2.3 Application of the PAR Methodology in Sustainable
Community Development
As a component of sustainability development, sustainable community development
studies is developed out of the convergence of two perspectives – that of science
and action. This means that sustainable community development studies cannot be
canonized in the form of a single, cohesive methodological approach, such as for
example, the narrative interview of a qualitative content analysis, or the results from
the respondents of a quantitative survey analysis. In essence, sustainable community
development studies require the researcher to conduct their research process with
people whose life-world and actions are under study.
Literature argues that sustainable community development studies is a transdisciplinary field of study which requires a participatory method where researchers and
co-researchers collaborate in order to gain a deeper insight and understanding into
the contextual structured-ness of meaning and the dynamism inherent in sustainable community development. Bergold and Thomas (2012), for instance, argue that
a methodological design that is participatory represents and provides an attractive
and fruitful knowledge-generating opportunity to the researcher when it comes to
researching sustainable community development especially in the areas of development interventions. Reason and Bradbury (2008) made a case that there is a strong
movement towards the adoption of “participative inquiry and practice” within the
debate on sustainable community development. They noted that numerous discussion
and research strands, in which the participation of research partners is conceptualized
in different ways, can converge in the sustainable community development research
paradigm.
It is argued by researchers that the adoption of the PAR methodology in research on
sustainable community development make sense because the goal is to change social
reality on the basis of insights into everyday practices that are obtained by means
Y. Rasyid
occurring in the midst of emergent structure. “Knowledge is always gained through
action and for action. From this starting point, to question the validity of social
knowledge is to question, not how to develop a reflective science about action, but
how to develop genuinely well-informed action—how to conduct an action science”
(Torbert 2001).
Stringer (1996), Brydon-Miller (2004), and Greenwood and Levin (2006) noted
that the PAR method focuses on the cooperative relationship between participants
and researcher and there is a permanent respect for knowledge of the participants and
for their ability to understand and address the issues. Literature has (Chambers 1997;
Cooke and Kothari 2001; Cornwall and Pratt 2003; Bleckley 2008) demonstrated that
PAR is commonly used by a whole range of community groups and NGOs (where
people already know each other and/or work together), and also by groups that come
together for the purposes of research and action on a particular issue.
2.3 Application of the PAR Methodology in Sustainable
Community Development
As a component of sustainability development, sustainable community development
studies is developed out of the convergence of two perspectives – that of science
and action. This means that sustainable community development studies cannot be
canonized in the form of a single, cohesive methodological approach, such as for
example, the narrative interview of a qualitative content analysis, or the results from
the respondents of a quantitative survey analysis. In essence, sustainable community
development studies require the researcher to conduct their research process with
people whose life-world and actions are under study.
Literature argues that sustainable community development studies is a transdisciplinary field of study which requires a participatory method where researchers and
co-researchers collaborate in order to gain a deeper insight and understanding into
the contextual structured-ness of meaning and the dynamism inherent in sustainable community development. Bergold and Thomas (2012), for instance, argue that
a methodological design that is participatory represents and provides an attractive
and fruitful knowledge-generating opportunity to the researcher when it comes to
researching sustainable community development especially in the areas of development interventions. Reason and Bradbury (2008) made a case that there is a strong
movement towards the adoption of “participative inquiry and practice” within the
debate on sustainable community development. They noted that numerous discussion
and research strands, in which the participation of research partners is conceptualized
in different ways, can converge in the sustainable community development research
paradigm.
It is argued by researchers that the adoption of the PAR methodology in research on
sustainable community development make sense because the goal is to change social
reality on the basis of insights into everyday practices that are obtained by means