Wakeford, Tom., and Jasber Singh. “Towards Empowered Participation: Stories and Reflections.”  Participatory Learning and Action 58 (2008): 6-9

This article is available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iiedpla/pla/2008/00000058/00000001/art00002

In essence this is a series of stories about participatory research premised on the belief that participation should create opportunities for people’s broader engagement in the processes of knowledge generation and policy-making. The authors are UK based social policy experts that argue that, “rather than empower people, much of what is claimed to be public engagement, involvement merely reinforces existing knowledge-validating and decision-making structures.”

Wakeford and Singh’s strongest argument is that professional acceptance of participation within academia is a testament to the many successful participatory projects designed to achieve social and environmental justice at the grassroots level. They however advise that in providing legitimacy to academic researchers, participatory research may make it even harder still for the non-academic to obtain research grants of that nature given there are more skilled applicants chasing those awards.

The article is succinct and very effectively conveys its message on citizenship participation utilisation in bringing about change in political and economic environments. The short length of the article however prevents any topic being examined in depth however each topic flows well into the next.  This article is most useful to the community cultural development practitioner intending to develop a deeper understanding of the application of PAR in broader environments such as their local government in order to ‘give people a voice’.

Tawanda Gadzikwa