Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook
Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook
edited by Susan D. Greenbaum, Glenn Jacobs and Prentice Zinn contributions by Jennifer Friedenbach, Chris Herring, TJ Johnston, Dilara Yarbrough, Peggy Kahn, Bill Hoynes, Jonathan Bix, Carl Wilmsen, Diane E. Bush, Victoria Breckwich Vásquez, Rich Heyman, Emily Timm, Pablo Alvarado, Chris Newman, Bliss Requa-Trautz, Nik Theodore, Teófilo L Reyes, Christina Fletes-Romo, Veronica Avila, Gretchen Purser, Kathleen Sexsmith, Fabiola Ortiz Valdez, Rebecca Fuentes, Carly Fox, David A Gadsby, Robert C Chidester, Leontina Hormel, Elliott Moffett, Julian Matthews, Lucinda Simpson, Natalicia R. Tracy, Chris Norden, Robert Elliott, Janne Underriner, Tim Sieber, Anne Phillips, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Lisa Marie Alatorre and Bilal Mafundi Ali
Rutgers University Press, 2020 Paper: 978-1-9788-0115-8 | Cloth: 978-1-9788-0116-5 | eISBN: 978-1-9788-0117-2 Library of Congress Classification H62.C5656 2020 Dewey Decimal Classification 303.4840973
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Across the U.S. immigrants, laborers, domestic workers, low-income tenants, indigenous communities, and people experiencing homelessness are conducting research to fight for justice. Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook documents the stories of a dozen community-based research projects. Academics and their partners share authorship about the importance of gathering credible evidence, both for organizing and persuading. The emphasis is on community organizations involved in struggles for equality and justice. Research projects directly engage community partners in all phases of the research process. Finally, the stories capture how the research changes the roles of researchers and those being researched. The book is designed for students, but also for community organizers, social justice activists, and their research allies; it offers real stories and real projects that show how democratizing research supports social change and heightens our understanding of complex social issues.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Susan Greenbaum is a retired professor of anthropology and member of the Sociological Initiatives board. She is the author of More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa and Blaming the Poor:The Long Shadow of the Moynihan Report on Cruel Images about Poverty (Rutgers University Press). She lives in Tampa, Florida.
Glenn Jacobs is a retired professor of sociology. He is the author of Charles Horton Cooley: Imagining Social Reality. He is a founding member and president of the Sociological Initiatives Foundation. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Prentice Zinn is a director of GMA Foundations, a philanthropic services organization based in Boston, Massachusetts.
REVIEWS
"The dismantling of the public sector over the past three decades has meant that even as universities proclaimed their commitment to civic engagement, community-based courses often ended up trying to compensate for the loss of essential services, rather than challenging the status quo. Now comes this collection, which demonstrates that when academics collaborate with grassroots activists who are committed to progressive social change, and when they embrace egalitarian research methods, genuine transformation is possible. I highly recommend it for anyone who is involved in university-community partnerships."
— Susan B. Hyatt, co-editor of Learning Under Neoliberalism: Ethnographies of Governance in Higher Education
"Each part of Collaborating for Change presents participatory action research from different communities and with different goals. What connects them is a shared rejection of the notion that academic research and community organizing are separate, and in fact, they show that blurring the lines between these practices strengthens each....While the findings they present are supported by the data and, while every research project led to significant policy changes, [some] succeeded beyond this [and] most clearly captured the power of praxis in language new researchers can absorb."
— AnthroSource
"The greatest strength of this casebook is that it includes numerous rich, detailed examples that illustrate PAR processes, including their strengths and contributions as well as challenges and obstacles. Each chapter is co-authored and focuses on a PAR process funded by the SIF. For those hungry for examples, this casebook is a feast."
— Contemporary Sociology
"Collaborating for Change is an invigorating how-to on forging solidarity across activist and academic divides, a blueprint for turning visions of a better world into reality with a step-by-step
accounting of what works on the frontlines in the struggle for social justice. In a new twist on “thinking global, acting local,” this powerful and instructive volume illustrates the magic that
happens when committed, thoughtful people bring their special knowledge and expertise to bear on a common goal."
— Alisse Waterston, author with illustrator Charlotte Hollands, of the forthcoming graphic book, Light in Dark Times: Th
"Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook is a particularly timely publication considering the influx in momentum for social justice movements during 2020....[A] quality overview of PAR as an epistemology and method, but its true value lies in the real world examples of how collaborating for change has played out and created co- benefits for researchers, activists, organizations, and communities."
— Rural Sociology
"Pedagogy in Participatory Action Research," by Prentice Zinn
— Footnotes
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
SUSAN D. GREENBAUM
1 The Epistemology and Hybridity of Participatory Action Research: What and Whose Truth Is It?
GLENN JACOBS
Part I Social Justice Organizing
3 The Activist Class Cultures Project: Helping Activists Become More Class Inclusive
BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT
4 Fighting Antihomeless Laws and the Criminalization of Poverty through Participatory Action Research
LISA MARIE ALATORRE, BILAL ALI, JENNIFER FRIEDENBACH, CHRIS HERRING, T. J. JOHNSTON, AND DILARA YARBROUGH
5 Organizers and Academics Together: The Household Energy Security Crisis and Utility Justice Organizing
JONATHAN BIX, WILLIAM HOYNES, AND PEGGY KAHN
Part II Worker Rights Activism
6 Shaping Organizing Strategy and Public Policy for an Invisible Workforce: Restaurant Opportunities Center VERONICA AVILA, CHRISTINA FLETES-ROMO, AND TEÓFILO REYES
7 Worker-Led Research Makes the Case for Labor Justice for Massachusetts Domestic Workers: Social Research and Social Change at the Grassroots
TIM SIEBER AND NATALICIA TRACY
8 Power Sharing through Participatory Action Research with a Latino Forest Worker Community
VICTORIA BRECKWICH VÁSQUEZ, DIANE BUSH, AND CARL WILMSEN
9 Making Injustice Visible: National Day Laborer Organizing Network’s Research and Action
PABLO ALVARADO, CHRIS NEWMAN, BLISS REQUA-TRAUTZ, AND NIK THEODORE
10 Milking Research for Social Change: Immigrant Dairy Farmworkers in Upstate New York
CARLY FOX, REBECCA FUENTES, FABIOLA ORTIZ VALDEZ, GRETCHEN PURSER, AND KATHLEEN SEXSMITH
11 Building a Better Texas: Participatory Research Wins for Texas Workers
RICH HEYMAN AND EMILY TIMM
Part III Language, Literacy, and Heritage
12 Mobilizing and Organizing Nimiipuu to Protect the Environment: Fighting to Protect Ancestral Lands in Idaho
LEONTINA HORMEL, JULIAN MATTHEWS, ELLIOTT MOFFETT, CHRIS NORDEN, AND LUCINDA SIMPSON
13 Building Future Language Leaders in a Participatory Action Research Model
ROBERT ELLIOTT AND JANNE UNDERRINER
14 Conclusion: Linking Research to Social Action
PRENTICE ZINN, SUSAN D. GREENBAUM, AND GLENN JACOBS
Notes on Contributors
About the Foundation
Index
