“Everyone has the right to research, ask critical questions about the systems and practices that shape their lives, and to imagine – through research – how they might be otherwise.” – Drs. Michelle Fine & María Elena Torre, Essentials of Critical Participatory Action Research
Critical participatory action research (CPAR) is a framework (Fine & Torre, 2021) for engaging research with communities seeking to document, challenge, and transform conditions for social justice. Committed to using research as a tool for social justice and equity, I draw inspiration from everyday people, social movements, and mobilization efforts that have historically challenged, questioned, and transformed systems, including (but not limited to): radical Black feminists, the Combahee River Collective, Black reformers, the Black women’s club movement, Civil Rights agitators, sit-in demonstrators of the 1960s, #BlackLivesMatter, #Occupy, and mutual aid programs led by the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, and social change agents across the globe.
Critical listening and leaning into conversations about what changes are needed and how change is brought about from the “bottom up” can slow trends of helicopter research, exploitation, and “top down” interventions that are imposed on communities with little or no input. CPAR and critical mixed methods research (CMMR) are foundational to our journey to learn from community members, participate in research with them, and disseminate findings in ways that advance and benefit the communities we partner with.
We thank our longstanding partners (some below) who have trusted us to tell their stories and work alongside them to enact change – precariously housed women, churches, tenants, tenant organizers, legal aid, housing advocates, aging service coordinators, and community gardeners and growers from South Carolina, Georgia, Oakland (CA), the DMV, and the five boroughs of New York City.
