Advancing Toledo's Neighborhood Movement through Participatory Action Research: Integrating Activist and Academic Approaches

This paper first develops the methodology of participatory action research as a research process originating from community-defined needs, involving community members in conducting the research, and leading to community-based action Within this research model, we discuss the difficulty of integrating the roles of activist and researcher Secondly, the paper describes the outcomes of the coordinated efforts of an activist academic and a professional community organizer who have engaged in a series of research projects to increase the organizational effectiveness and urban redevelopment capacity of community-based development organizations in Toledo, Ohio. Thirdly, the paper evaluates our project, discussing how we addressed the problem of integrating activist and researcher roles *An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, DC, 1990 Many thanks to Ron Randall, Barry Checkoway, and anonymous reviewers for The Clinical Sociology Review for insightful comments on earlier drafts of this paper