Participatory Action Research and its Application in District Government Settings
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Date
2006
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Abstract
"The paper explores the application of Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach in district government settings and draws lessons from research conducted in several districts in Indonesia during the decentralization transition period. The research projects have been engaged in policy processes at the district level. This has been to identify, analyze and develop shared policy recommendations on how decentralized forestry and spatial planning policies affect local livelihoods and promote collective action, in securing property rights for the poor.
"While the efficacy of PAR in empowering local communities has been widely recognized, this paper explores the potential use of the approach in instigating a learning process among government officials. This may be of particular assistance when officials are attempting to better understand district issues and interacting with local people, in order to bring about changes.
"Our findings indicate that the approach serves as a suitable tool to generate greater research impacts than do extractive methods. When using PAR, government people are more motivated to learn about their problems and reflect on the actions they have taken. The PAR approach also allows the research to better understand how elite capture takes place in policy processes that further disadvantage the poor and marginalized groups. Factors that determined the prospective use of this approach, as well as challenges to the application at the district level, are discussed."
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Keywords
IASC, action research, state and local governance