Community Participation in Research and Development: A Case Study from Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories

Abstract

<p>Theories and models of community participation have received considerable attention from academics in the social sciences, and from practitioners in developing countries. This thesis examines the participatory paradigm as it is manifested in two realms: economic development and applied anthropological research. Primary data are drawn from field-research in the Inuit community of Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories.</p> <p>This thesis is unique in its presentation of a public evaluation, co-researched together with an Inuk member of the community. This report is used as a case-study that provides fodder for the theoretical and pragmatic discussions that surround it. Weaving together academic and applied concerns, this dissertation performs a dual purpose. The first objective is to critically examine the ideas that lie at the root of the participatory research and development ideology, and through the identification of knowledge as power.</p> <p>The second goal is to offer insight into the political, economic, and cultural pragmatics of doing participatory research and development at the community-level. The evaluation of community-based tourism development in Pangnirtung provides the ethnographic data on which this more applied analysis is based. The participatory methodology employed in the evaluation is the base of discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of research. This thesis offers the "co-researcher" model of investigation as a productive process that is relevant not only to the researchers, but also to the communities which are the subject of research.</p> <p>The conclusion draws several theoretical and ethnographic parallels in doing participatory research and development in the North. Important policy implications are highlighted both for government and development practitioners, and for leaders engaged in the struggle for aboriginal self-government. Finally, several recommendations are made toward developing methodologies of research and development, more appropriate to aboriginal community contexts.</p>