ICR About: The Vision

THE VISION

The vision that has guided the work of the organisation to date has been composed of a number of strands:

The goal of establishing working partnerships with communities and organisations both locally and internationally, based on mutual respect, democratic methods and tactical alliances aimed at achieving mutual goals;
The idea that academic work and skills can be socially relevant and useful to lay people in exploring their problems and informing discussion about issues that affect their lives and interests, and in informing and challenging their and our own views and perspectives;
The development of research methodologies based on principles of participative action research (PAR), and the honing of these methods for use in violently divided and contested contexts.

Our work has been concerned with the disempowerment that can occur in the research process, which can compound the disempowering effects of violence itself. The development of the use of PAR offers a way of doing research that does not stigmatise, or further marginalise and disempower.