Epistemic injustice and dissidence: A bibliometric analysis of the literature on Participatory Action Research hosted on the Web of Science

Abstract

For decades, Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been extended as a scientific praxis applied in different contexts, characterised by the involvement of participating groups and oriented towards social transformation. However, there is a certain dialectical tension between those approaches that emphasise the method versus those that emphasise the pursuit of social change from a decolonial perspective. This article questions how this praxis is reflected in scientific transfer, analysing not only the development and scope of scientific production in PAR, but also how the academy may reproduce relations inherent to coloniality in this transfer. To this end, the production on PAR hosted on the Web of Science (WoS) is collected, and a bibliometric analysis is performed by applying descriptive and relational techniques using VosViewer software. The study concludes that scientific production has not stopped growing and that the areas of knowledge where it is applied have diversified. However, it also points out how the knowledge production model reproduces the power relations of coloniality, affecting PAR’s transfer. This analysis can contribute to the debate on a scientific approach oriented to improve processes of social transformation.