Participatory Research in Latin America as Political Engagement

Abstract

In a first part the text brings the search of Latin America for its self-interpretation on the base of some selected authors like José Martí, José Vasconcelos, John Mackay and Richard Morse. In this trajectory, the concept people changed its meaning from a holistic to a more differentiated one, that supposes a cleavage between local elites and the socially dominated groups. In a second part the text argues that this new interpretation underlies the emerging of participatory research in Latin America, understood by its pioneers Carlos Rodrigues Brandão, Paulo Freire and Orlando Fals Borda primarily as a combination of research and political engagement in favor of the people defined as a collective of oppressed social groups struggling for its emancipation.