Resources and Constraints

In Participatory Action Research

Thinking broadly
Political Opportunity Structures

Systems & Your PAR

Lifeworlds Project

Resources &
Constraints

Arena of
Micropolitics
Political Opportunity Structures

Political opportunity structures are the configuration of openings and closures that exist beyond a collective but impact its members, relationships and objectives.

Structural opportunities are the Cultural opportunities refer to

degree of openness of the prevailing norms, ideas and
political system, such as conflict resolution models
democratic openings, accepted by the public in a
opportunities to change particular society.
leadership, and protections for
alternative perspectives.
Lifeworlds vs. Systems (Habermas, Kemis et al. 2014)
Systems:
Hierarchical modes of communication;
Established procedures and routines for doing things;
Bureaucratic view of what is “correct”;
Institutional/disciplinary understandings of what has
value and virtue;
Asymmetrical power relations in organisations and
institutions;
Emphasis on formality, efficiency, division of
spheres/labor, systematicity
Lifeworlds:
Relating to those around us as whole, complex people,
not their institutional roles
Focus on relationships and the social worlds within
and outside of institutions
Informal dynamics have power
Ordinary, everyday processes
Communication based on dialogue, exchange and
consensus
Emphasis on building positive relationships and
solidarity
Resource Mobilization
1. Financial resources: funding, in-kind donations, personal contributions,
2. Social-organizational resources: organizational infrastructure, social networks, connections to
funders, and other institutional resources;
3. Human resources: the experience, expertise and skills of participants;
4. Social resources: the people to whom participants are connected or have relationships with, who
might be able to offer additional support, legitimacy, or power;
5. Cultural resources: cultural competency, forms of local knowledge, and collective identities of
project participants;
6. Moral resources: legitimacy from the public (or sectors of the public) and solidarity among
external actors;
The Micropolitics of PAR

Micropolitics: The formal and informal strategies used by individuals in a group to gain,
maintain or shift power dynamics between them.

The arena of micropolitics: The immediate spaces, places, and relationship in which you
navigate external and internal constraints, resources, and possibilities for participation,
education, and education.
- What resources will you contribute?
- What challenges will you face? How will you handle them?
Political Opportunity Structures

Your PAR
Systems & Project
Lifeworlds

Resources &
Constraints

Arena of
Micropolitics
Social Action in PAR
Small Group Activity

What resources can you contribute?

Common Challenges in PAR

Avoidable, addressable or insurmountable?

What are some challenge you are
anticipating?
Avoidable Challenges

- Research team assumes community interests, needs, challenges, knowledge

- Research team imposes their project on community members
- Research population not sufficiently represented
- Opportunities for building trust, relationships, and safety are not sufficiently thought out or
planned for
- Research team makes overly ambitious promises
- Participants romanticize the project and its potential
- Project is too short to be meaningfully PAR
- Project does not have the infrastructure to include participation, co-learning, and/or action
- Project should never have been done
Addressable Challenges

- Community members are distrustful of research team/institution

- Research team wants to move faster than community members
- Relationships are not being strengthened over time
- Only some community members are actively engaged in the project
- Community team members don’t follow through on what they said they would do
- Community team members don’t have the skills or knowledge needed to properly
complete the project
- Community leaders have better/more important things to do
- You/researchers overwhelmed with other obligations
- The project is requiring more than you expected
Unavoidable Challenges

- Participation vs. action: the - Competing agendas

- Between researchers and community
democracy/leadership paradox members
- Between researchers
- Between community members

- Competing worldviews
- Power imbalances
- Between researchers and community
members
- Paying participants: from moral - Between researchers
- Between community members
capital to capitalist exchange
- Reproduction of economic hierarchies
Small Group Activity

How can you prepare for potential challenges?