The Necessity of Action: Following through on the Promise of Action in Participatory Action Research

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has the goal of democratizing knowledge to inform individual and collective action. However, university researchers often fail to reach PAR's promise of action. As our social and economic system grows more untenable, action-oriented research that is inclusive of, and explicitly benefits, the communities researchers work within becomes increasingly necessary. With a collective 26 years of experience in community organizing and 13 years of conducting PAR work, this roundtable will critically reflect on how PAR can successfully work toward social change. We will do this by grounding PAR in genealogies of community organizing, that is, how PAR work within the academy adds to historical and ongoing community organizing movements. We will describe how university researchers maintain an anti-oppressive praxis as they work in partnership with and center communities and their ongoing organizing efforts. As such, the roundtable will describe 4 main topics: (1) how university researchers have grounded their work in organizing efforts, (2) how they work to collaboratively identify or honor the goals of those they partner with (3) how they bring specific tools and resources to ongoing political efforts outside of the academy and (4) how this has resulted in both individual and collective action. To that end, the presenters will each describe one aspect of this. The first presenter will discuss their experience as a youth organizer in NYC transitioning from a young person directly impacted by policing in schools, to an adult ally supporting NYC public school students. They will unpack the ways adult allies can hold space for young people who want to take collective action in removing police in schools. The second presenter will describe three factors that both community and university researchers describe as key to ensuring individual and collective action is taken. Next, presenter three will discuss their ongoing experience organizing and researching with two Los Angeles coalitions the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and Downtown Women's Action Coalition. They will discuss how PAR work grounded in the Black Radical Tradition or a Black liberatory epistemology is uniquely positioned to help bolster counter surveillance initiatives, grow trusting relational networks, and support movements toward abolition. Further, they will address how specific resources can be siphoned from academia to better support researchers within grassroots organizations, and how these resources can improve the quality of life for those most impacted by carceral systems. Finally, the last presenter, will focus on his dissertation work tapping into existing organizing efforts surrounding housing justice and mutual aid, matching existing organizing efforts with action-oriented research, and the difficulties navigating action-oriented research throughout the dissertation process. Following that, this roundtable will engage participants in critically examining how research can and should be used to inform action. Participants will be asked to reflect on and discuss the following questions: What does action look like to you? How have you seen PAR lead to social change? How do we continue to counter normative "neutral"stances of "objectivity"within academic spaces and instead build on praxis grounded in community experience?