Mich: Participation of the poor in research: why and how should it be done?

Agathe Osinski and Katarina Pitasse Fragoso

Over the past decades, governments and international organizations have increasingly supported participatory research in the context of poverty. Consider the World Bank’s Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) and the International Movement ATD Fourth World, which seek to analyse poverty by involving the poor in the process to identify what it means to live in poverty. In this paper, we argue that a participatory research approach is necessary to better understand and combat poverty, whilst at the same time empowering the poor during this process. However, a pragmatic objection seems to challenge these very reasons by arguing that a participatory research may be too burdensome. In response, we flesh out guidelines to specify what we identify as an adequate format of a participatory research. The paper is structured as follows: after attempting to conceptualise participatory processes (I), we briefly outline the epistemic (II) and moral reasons (III) for which the poor should be included in such research. Next, we test these reasons by considering the possible pragmatic constraints (IV). Finally, we suggest principles and guidelines for involving the poor in a participatory research.