Transgressive Practices in Participatory Action Research within the Context of Projects as a System of Governance: Challenges of the Project Society

Abstract: The article explores the notion of “project” in relation to participatory
action research. When action research as a research practice first came to
Scandinavia in the sixties, the very concept of project and doing projects was
in itself transgressive. This is no longer the case. Today much working life and
societal development is organized around projects where goals, practises and
criterion for success are intended to run only for a limited period of time, and
where project endlessly follows project with the risk of fragmented outlooks
as well as outcomes. We will discuss how the widespread institutional and discursive
presence of projects in people’s everyday lives affects the possibilities
of action research to engage in meaningful democratic and transgressive practises
with its participants. When does participatory action research become yet
another social technique and when does it have the potential to challenge dominating
social hierarchies and contribute to social change? We will discuss these
questions based on findings from two empirical action research projects from
our own work in the multicultural field. In one project, teachers and researcher
engage in the development of multicultural education at a primary school. The
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other project considers the participation of a group of young ethnic minority
girls in a multicultural suburban area and has as its aim the development of
democratic learning processes and empowerment.