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Emancipatory Research as Empowerment: An Illustration from a Research Study of Persons with Disabilities in Palestine

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The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation

Part of the book series: Rethinking International Development series ((RID))

Abstract

In this chapter, Biggeri and Ciani introduce emancipatory research as a participatory methodology that can produce relevant information for policy-making as well as for individual and social empowerment. The focus is on the research methodology itself, which promotes emancipation. This is illustrated through a case study that focuses on the capabilities of persons with disabilities in Palestine. The research in question was carried out by women with disabilities and members of disabled people’s organizations. Research participants were empowered through training and mentoring before leading all phases of the research process from the identification of objectives through to the dissemination of results. Professional researchers stepped back during the process and only acted as facilitators and advisors. This shift in power relations made it possible for local people to drive the research process and production of knowledge with the objective of empowering them to take part in, and directly influence, decision-making. The core of emancipatory research is rooted in the Freirean tradition of enquiry and empowerment which brings back the ideals of participatory approaches in a radical, challenging and transformative way.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Emancipation was set as the main goal of many social, political and religious movements in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The struggle for equal rights and social justice and efforts to gain more power (including political power) have been undertaken by various marginalized groups—the poor, women, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, religious factions, the LBTG community and children (amongst many others).

  2. 2.

    Amongst these theories are the critical sociology of the Frankfurt school (associated with Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and others), as well as Paulo Freire’s (1996) critical pedagogy which is discussed shortly.

  3. 3.

    Many of these approaches have been inspired by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s critique of capitalism.

  4. 4.

    See Article 1 of the UNCRPD.

  5. 5.

    The project was ‘Empowerment of DPOs promoting WwDs’ rights in the West Bank’ funded by the European Commission.

  6. 6.

    A special mention should be made of the efforts of one blind woman from Ramallah who spontaneously decided to translate all the tools used by her group into Braille.

  7. 7.

    A fuller discussion of the ER results can be found in ARCO (Action Research for CO-Development) and RIDS (Italian Network on Diversity and Development) (2016).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Mario Biggeri & Federico Ciani

  2. Action Research for CO-Development (ARCO), PIN-Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Mario Biggeri & Federico Ciani

Authors
  1. Mario Biggeri
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  2. Federico Ciani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mario Biggeri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    David Alexander Clark

  2. Action Research for CO-Development (ARCO), PIN-Educational and Scientific Services for the University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    David Alexander Clark  & Mario Biggeri  & 

  3. Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Mario Biggeri

  4. Development Planning Unit, University College London, London, UK

    Alexandre Apsan Frediani

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Biggeri, M., Ciani, F. (2019). Emancipatory Research as Empowerment: An Illustration from a Research Study of Persons with Disabilities in Palestine. In: Clark, D.A., Biggeri, M., Frediani, A.A. (eds) The Capability Approach, Empowerment and Participation. Rethinking International Development series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-35230-9_13

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