Are academics irrelevant?

This article describes the role of academics in participatory research (PR) and argues that doing research is not a goal in itself but only a means. The author argues that the three conventional PR approaches available to academics - the initiator, the consultant and the collaborator - seem unsatisfactory and fraught with tensions, which he traces to a misconception that PR is a research project. Once PR is seen as part of a larger community change project, of which research is only one piece, the researcher role becomes one of many. Other roles in PR that the article discusses are that of "animator", community organiser, popular educator and participatory researcher.