Bioregional Participatory Action Research framework

Introduction and intended use

The Bioregional Participatory Action Research (BPAR) framework offers guidance to take action for bioregional regeneration: improving socio-ecological conditions of your life-place. BPAR is applicable when you have a problem, question or challenge where there is no best practice to follow and you need to discover what works. It gives a sense of orientation and direction: Where am I and what should I do? The framework can be used incidentally to reflect on your current situation and determine the next action, or it can be used fully from start to finish. The framework also offers a frame to explain how you are regenerating a bioregion. The framework is deliberately minimal and is meant to be adapted and extended to fit your local bioregional context. Use what works, discard what does not and add what is missing.

Steps and outcome: What to do

Execute four steps (bold) to ensure twelve outcomes (underlined and numbered). When used from start to finish, write these outcomes in a research paper (blue italic) to share with others.

Step 1) Direction: Calling Enquiry

Introduction

• Formulate a Research question (1) and
• limit scope (2) geographically, relationally and conceptually.

Step 2) Research: Connect & Explore

Initial exploration and literature review

• Explore the landscape (3),
• Connect with stakeholders (4) and
• Perform a literature review (5).

Step 3) Action: Collaborate & Experiment

Methods

Run experiment to test hypothesis:

• “Will Action (6) lead to
• Intended Outcome (7)?"
• Collaborate: Design for participation (8),
• Make sure to collect data and observations (9).

Step 4) Wisdom: Community Evaluation

Results

• Analyse data and observations to validate hypothesis (10).

Conclusion and discussion

• Answer research question (11) and
• Determine next step (12) - a new BPAR cycle.

Principles: How to do it

The steps tell you what to do and the principles tell you how to do it. These principles can be applied at every step to infuse them with the spirit of BPAR. As BPAR is a minimal framework, use these principles to guide your decisions in adapting and extending the framework for your local context. There are four principles that are based on the name: BPAR.

Every principle is formulated as a question and a value statement: “We value X over Y”. Which means that while Y might be useful at times, we prefer X when faced with a dilemma.

The Bioregional Principle

How are you listening or regenerating the Bioregion?
We value a deep ecological view over an anthropocentric view (Bio-)
We value a place-based view over a global view (-regional)

Listening applies to the Direction/Research steps and Regenerating to the Action/Wisdom steps.

The Participatory Principle

How are you inviting people to Participate?
We value sharing over retaining (of information, decisions, resources, work, power)

The Action Principle

How are you taking Action for bioregional regeneration?
We value action for bioregional regeneration over thinking and talking.

The Research Principle

How are you Researching?
We value discovery over delivery (learning over performing).

A visual overview

Next steps

Use the framework

Use BPAR to

• …find the next best action in an existing initiative.
• …structure an initiative from start to finish.
• …as a frame to explain to others what you are doing.
• …improve your strategy.

Read the BPAR guide to learn how.

Learn more about Bioregional Participatory Action Research

Read the BPAR guide and learn more:

• An introduction to Bioregoning and Participatory Action Research.
• A deep dive into the DRAW-steps and BPAR-principles.
• Additional models and methods to extend and adapt the framework.
• Further reading and resources to continue learning.

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Use the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, which requires you to attribute the authors and share under the same license.

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