Abstract
This chapter provides an example of Gregory’s critical engagement with action research approaches. It illustrates the way that power is always already present before you even enter the research space and the way that always already present power can drive the process. This example is not presented here as a perfect example but as a ‘best effort’ in the given context and one you might use to better understand the practice and its complexities, tensions and contradictions, both in theory and practice. Unfortunately, a tendency exists in some of the reported AR literature to tell stories through compelling exemplars that sentimentalise, romanticise or grossly oversimplify the process and the outcomes. This propensity for simplification or exaggeration may be for personal or political reasons such as presenting sanitised reports in order to win funding or to mobilise allies through partisan rhetoric. However, the danger is that this can lead to naïve, mechanical, distorted or even erroneous understandings of the change process promoted by PAtR.
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Notes
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It should be pointed out that this was prior to the introduction in Australia of a ‘mutual obligation’ policy, which introduced the idea of compulsion and a regime of penalties for those who did not participate in Work for the Dole (unemployment benefit) programmes or other approved activities.
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lisahunter, Emerald, E., Martin, G. (2013). LEAPing into Youth Work: PAtR in a Cultural Profession. In: Participatory Activist Research in the Globalised World. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 26. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4426-4_10
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