Confronting espoused theories with theories-in-use: Challenges of participatory action research with marginalized communities in contributing to social change and theory building

This article reflects on a participatory action research process in partnership with segregated Roma communities in Hungary. It will focus on the “non-positivist good theory”-building capacity of participatory action research in situations where social distance between participants is high and where action-oriented cooperation involves numerous actors, continuously extends to new stakeholders and areas, and aims to contribute to long-term and general social goals. Special attention will be paid to the effects of three phenomena: extreme poverty, extreme egalitarianism, and community hierarchy. We show that as cooperation shifts from discussions to actions and theories-in-use start dominating the process, PAR might become a complex and fuzzy process, characterized by numerous pragmatic and ethical challenges and contradictions. Thus, in a setting described above, it is a rather challenging task for PAR to create a “non-positivist good theory”: one which enables and empowers community members to make pragmatic and sustainable changes in their lives.