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Description
According to the research, most Estonian inhabitants find that their voices should be more heard in the decision-making processes. The aim of the project is to strengthen democratic culture by involving citizens in participatory action research (PAR) to increasingly take part in knowledge creation needed for decision-making processes.
PAR is a research approach based on democratic principles and understanding that knowledge creation for social change needs to involve people from the target groups in all stages of the studies. By using PAR people affected by common issues take charge of creating knowledge and through the research process become more empowered and capable to direct changes. The approach is based on the understanding that people are experts of their experience and that research into social issues should not be a process that only researchers are entitled to. PAR approach has been used only in a few cases in Estonia.
To achieve our objectives, (1) PAR is introduced to NGO and public sector representatives who are involved with policy research; (2) two pilot-studies based on PAR approach are implemented in cooperation with project partners Estonian Union for Child Welfare and Estonian Fund for Nature; and (3) web-based guidelines about PAR will be published in Estonian.
As a result of the project PAR will be increasingly used and this will empower and involve different groups better to the decision-making processes.