Berardi, Gigi

This paper is the written version of a panel, "The Challenge to Change: Rural Participatory Theory and Applications, Professional Realities and the New High Ground," that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of American Geographers in March 1998. It presents the cross-disciplinary interaction and views of various social scientists who commented on and offered critiques of the use of participatory research theory and applications in their own work.

This paper outlines some key features of participatory appraisal methods that are applicable to Alaska village sanitation issues. It describes the sanitation problems that afflict "Village Alaska" (the many remote villages in rural Alaska with low populations and high levels of poverty), the application and methodologies of participatory research approaches that were undertaken to address the problems, and the findings of the study.