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Budd Hall
Presentation Title: Communities, Knowledge and Structural Transformation: The Institutionalisation of Community-Based Research in Universities. There are a variety of origins cited in the literature of community-based research (Strand et al, 2003). It is important for readers to know from which “school” of community-based research I have sprung. I am the first person to make use of the term “participatory research” (Hall, 1975). Participatory research as concept was born in Tanzania in the early 1970s. Its original influences were the ideas of Julius K Nyerere, Paulo Freire (who visited Tanzania in 1971), Maria Liisa Swantz (Finnish Anthropologist), Frederick Engels (Enquete Ovriere) and Gandhi-ji. (Hall, 1992). Participatory Research was the theme of one of the workshops of the first World Assembly of Adult Education that took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June of 1976. With support from the 5-600 participants from 83 countries who participated in that event, a project grew into what became known later as the International Participatory Research Network. Community-based researchers in countries all over the world were attracted to the basic concepts of participatory research. The first definition of participatory research was, “PR is a three pronged activity combining social investigation, education and action” (Hall, 1992). The network combined forces with Orlando Fals Borda of Columbia, Francisco Vio Grossi of Chile, Rajesh Tandon of India, Kemal Mustapha and Yusuf Kassam of Tanzania and more. Patricia Maguire and Lynda Yanz brought feminist research frameworks to the evolving discourse (Maguire, 1987). Several important points arise from this particular history. First, the driving energy for the early work came from an anti-colonial and anti-oppression framework with intellectual leadership from the majority world or what we sometimes call the global South. Second, the early writings and reflections were born in the community-groups and the NGOs of both the North and the South, not in any university. Third, University-based researchers such as Peter Park and John Hurst of the United States picked up news of these trends and began to bring them into University settings. Indeed all of my earliest writings in participatory research occurred outside a university, when I was working for the International Council for Adult Education. In the years that have passed participatory research, participatory action research, community-based participatory research, community-based research have entered the academy with gusto. One can now find courses in community-based research in literally hundreds of universities in North America alone. One can find CBR projects equally well distributed. There are also centres for community-based research located in specific faculties or along specific themes. The next move in the transformation of Universities is the appearance of University-wide structures for the support of community-based research. The recently announced Office of Community-Based Research at the University of Victoria is perhaps the first such university-wide CBR structure in Canada and one of few in North America. This paper documents the move of the idea of CBR from community to teaching to projects and centres to the next stage of institutionalization which is typified by the University of Victoria OCBR. |
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Budd Hall is the newly appointed first Director of the University of Victoria's Office of Community-Based Research. He coined the term 'participatory research' in the early 1970s and founded the International Participatory Research Network which operated throughout the world during the 1970, 80s and 90s. He has been the Secretary-General of the International Council for Adult Education, Chair of Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto, Dean of Education at the University of Victoria. In addition to his writings in community-based participatory research, Budd also writes on issues of learning and social movements, global civil society and the role of poetry in social change. He is a Father of two grown sons, one teacher and one musician, and husband of the University of Victoria Professor, Dr. Dalene Clover. He is a practicing poet.