Combining participatory action research and emerging ways of collective action to promote institutional change toward social commitment: groundings, strategies, and implications of an experience

Abstract

Aims: this study reports the foundations, strategies, and results of an institutional change experience based on the combination of participatory-action-research and new currents of collective mobilization and political participation. It aimed to achieve the institution's greater social commitment and a more participatory and transparent management. Methods: the process took place in a Spanish public university and was promoted and coordinated by a Work Group that emerged from grassroots university community. Collective diagnosis was performed through face-to-face strategies (global, sectorial, and faculty meetings) and virtual tools (web-blog, on-line surveys, shared documents). Collective action combined nonformal with formal institutional participation and applied hybrid activism, self-organization in horizontal structures and integrative conflict management. Results: a sequential process of diagnosis, collective action, and negotiation was implemented. As a result, the university Governing Team, representatives from different sectors and members of the Work Group worked jointly to define several institutional actions that were thereafter launched. Those actions aimed to improve institutional participation and transparency, and greater institutional social commitment. Conclusion: the combination of participatory-action-research and new ways of collective action can be an excellent tool to draw institutions towards greater social engagement, thus contributing to sustainable social change. A model to guide institutional change is drafted.