Participatory-action-research: methodological alternative for the study of communities. Orlando Fals Borda's vision

Abstract

The influence of positivism in the study of the social sciences made the application of the method rigid as regards the study of communities. But before the validity of the social proposal of critical theory, the use of the positivist method was alternated. The study focuses on showing that there are other methods for studying communities. In this sense, the Participatory Action-Research supported by Anisur and Fals (1988); Gurdián-Fernández (2007); Herrera and López (2014), show it as an alternative method that suggests the social, ethical and scientific commitment of the researcher. It is important to note that many authors have crossed out Participatory Action-Research (PAR) as a Marxist method, however, and without forgetting its origin, this method proposes approaching the study of communities from an interdisciplinary perspective with sociological, anthropological, educational, criteria. political, without any bias. In conclusion, the participatory action research methodology has its origins in the social struggle with liberating and emancipatory pretensions, in a multipolar, integrative and syntagmatic vision, it proposes considerations that make it typical of Latin America. For this reason, the application of the IAP method is contextualized to the reality of the Latin American peoples, but exported to the world and to other disciplines such as education, administration, political science and anthropology.