Participatory Approaches and Community Accountability in Civil Society and Justice Research

This online workshop has been organised by the Security, Conflict and Justice (SCJ) Pathway and the Civil Society, Development and Democracy (CDD) Pathway and is open to all ESRC and non-ESRC funded PhD and MA Social Research students within the WRDTP’s seven partner universities. Whilst this session has been organised by the SCJ and CDD Pathways, students aligned with other interdisciplinary Pathways are welcome to attend if its themes and content will be of use to you in your research.

This training event centres questions of participation and accountability in research. It provides a space for learning and debate on participation both in a methodological sense (i.e. use of participatory research methods) and in a substantive sense (facilitating the ownership and accountability of the research process by those being researched).

How can we work in partnership with the communities that we research? How can we share ownership of research findings and outputs, and work towards creating impact for those most affected? What are the mechanisms by which we can remain accountable to the communities we research on and with? Which ethical dilemmas can participatory action research raise? How do we relate to or disengage from research communities once projects end and how can pathways forward be made sustainable beyond the duration of the project?

For this event on Participatory Approaches and Community Accountability in Civil society and Justice Research, we have invited researchers from a range of different disciplines who have employed participatory methods in their own research.

This training event is open to PGRs at all levels of their studies. Its objective of thinking through accountability to the communities we research and participatory research methods is relevant to all PGRs researching communities and civil society organisations. In that sense, it will be as useful for MAs and first year students who have begun thinking about and planning fieldwork, just as it will be useful for those having done fieldwork who are reflecting on these questions too.