What is emancipatory action research?

"Creating critical spaces for dialogue is important, involving all co-participants in co-creating knowledge for our times. These are counter-hegemonic critical spaces where power relationships are investigated and deconstructed in order to act to reconstruct democratic relations with new possibilities for a world that is fair and just. This concept of a democratic public space is a vital context for social justice as a site for critical dialogue and participation in the process of participatory democracy (Habermas, 1989)" (Ledwith 2017, p. 56)

"Critique and dissent are central to the deepening of democracy; critiquing the status quo opens the space to transform the present into a better future. In these ways, EAR contextualises personal lives within the political, social, and economic structures of our times (Kemmis, 2006). And, to have a sustainable impact on social change, it needs to extend beyond individuals and groups “to build systemic pictures of what is going on, and systemic intervention strategies, developing multiple inquiries that engage whole systems in on- going cycles of inquiry” (Burns, 2007)" (Ledwith 2017, p. 56)

Ledwith, M. (2017). Emancipatory action research as a critical living praxis: from dominant narratives to counternarrative. In L. L. Rowell, C. D. Bruce, J. M. Shosh, & M. M. Riel (Eds.), The palgrave international handbook of action research (pp. 49–62). New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40523-4_4 - paper access here