Community development through participatory, engaged, and critical analysis

Introduction Today, there is a growing need to consider complex problems and multiple constituencies when designing and evaluating community development policies and programs. This need has prompted calls for increased levels of citizen participation and public engagement in policy formulation and program planning processes. Roberts (2004, p. 340) identifies this trend as it relates to the emergence of wicked problems, which she distinguishes as public policies that are “difficult to assess independently of the social actors involved.” What makes wicked problems unique is that they involve complex and layered dimensions that impact various segments of the population differently. In essence, wicked problems, such as poverty, exposure to environmental risks, social injustice, and public health and safety, raise a variety of questions about equity and the distribution of costs and benefits from public policy. Momentum for increased public participation grew during the 1960s in response to wicked problems stemming from the mass displacement of innercity residents and the destruction of urban neighborhoods during the urban renewal era (Anderson, 1964; Gans, 1962). This movement gained additional strength and was ingrained in the policy process with legislation passed to forward President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs like the “War on Poverty” and other community development policies that were guided by the principle of open government and “maximum feasible participation” (Rubin, 1969). The movement to promote open government and expand public participation took on additional dimensions with calls for increased collaboration in the form of Participatory Action Research (PAR) (Freire, 1970; Jolivtte, 2015; Stoecker, 1999; Strand, Marullo, Cutforth, Stoecker, & Donohue, 2003). PAR represented a shift from policy analysis driven by technical experts to an approach grounded in collaborative research with constituents and stakeholders affected by policy decisions (Bradbury, 2015; Chevalier & Buckles, 2013). It focuses on empowering constituencies and stakeholders through the research process by making them equal partners at each step of it, including: the identification of research questions, the collection of data, its analysis, the formulation of policy recommendations, their implementation, and the evaluation of policy outcomes. PAR is distinct from traditional policy analysis methodologically and in terms of power relations. Bradbury (2015, p. 38) distinguishes PAR in these terms: Action research is a democratic and participative orientation to knowledge creation, it brings together action and reflection, theory and practice, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern. Action research is a pragmatic co-creation of knowing with, not on, people.