Participatory Research, as described by Sohng (1995), is a means of putting research capabilities in the hands of deprived and disenfranchised people so that they can identify themselves as knowing actors; defining their reality, shaping their new identity, naming their history, and transforming their lives for themselves…. It is a means of preventing an elite group from exclusively determining the interests of others, in effect of transferring power to those groups engaged in the production of popular knowledge.”

Sohng, S. (1995). Participatory research and community organizing. A working paper presented at The New Social Movement and Community Organizing Conference, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. November 1-3., 1995. Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://www.interweb-tech.com/nsmnet/docs/sohng.htm