Abstract
This chapter offers a critical overview of participatory action research (PAR) as a means of studying political participation. Amidst growing concern that “parachute-style” research was further disempowering the communities it intended to uplift, there was a turn in the 1970s towards more participatory modes of research that recognized the importance of local knowledge and insights in shaping social change. In addressing the central tenets and underlying philosophies of PAR, this chapter emphasizes everyday politics as a legitimate site for the development of contemporary political subjectivities. Moreover, it suggests that PAR is, itself, a form of political participation in that it has the potential to bring about durable social change by amplifying the agency of research participants. In closing, the chapter addresses the intersection between PAR and Indigenous research methods, and briefly considers the implications of the decolonial turn for the study of political participation.