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"The paper analyzes the construction of a pedagogical-investigative
method, which has as its key element the development of strategies for
overcoming inequalities in Latin American societies. Paulo Freire and
Orlando Fals Borda, among others, provide elements for understanding
the origins of a method which, in research, has a close relation to the
educational dimension and, in education, integrates the investigative
dimension as a part of the process of developing active subjects in their
communities. The paper refers to research projects that were developed
using participatory methodologies, attempting to identify some recent
developments, advances and limits. Among these projects, special
attention is paid to those that show the role of pedagogical mediations in
participatory social processes in South Brazil (state of Rio Grande do Sul),
particularly the activities of a garbage recyclying association and the
implementation of the participatory budget in a municipality in South
Brazil." (author's abstract)

"This text is a contribution to methodological reflection on research, based
on the experience of a research team who explored various aspects of the
participatory budget in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). It is
situated within the context of participatory research, and deals with the
following topics: method and methodology: the insertion of research and
education within the same process of knowing; research and its ethical and
political commitment; research as public action directed towards the
constitution of the public sphere. The intense interaction in the research
process, attending to the assemblies of the participatory budget in various
municipalities, being present at council meetings, talking to communities
and community leaders as well as participating in academic circles,
contributed to understanding research as integrated within the movement
of knowledge, values, cultures, worldviews, and above all, people towards
the achievement of their goals." (author's abstract)

"In a well ordered city every man flies to the assemblies:
under a bad government no one cares to stir a step to get
to them, because no one is interested in what happens
there, because it is foreseen that the general will will not
prevail, and lastly because domestic cares are allabsorbing.
Good laws lead to the making of better ones;
bad ones bring about worse. As soon as man says of the
affairs of the State What does it matter to me? the State
may be given up for lost. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1950:
93)." (author's abstract)

"This article analyzes research as political-pedagogical mediation in
constituting citizenship, having as a reference the Participatory Budget
process of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). It verifies how, through a participative
methodology, the researcher is challenged to reposition him or her
self and the process of production of knowledge in the context of social
change." (author's abstract)

"The article presents the experiences of a research group in South Brazil.
The main purpose is to describe and reflect upon the process developed by
a group which, while following quite independent paths, encounters in
participatory action research the methodological basis for carrying out
different projects. There are presented and discussed five different projects:
(1) participatory budgeting, which also marked the beginning of the
group; (2) the work of artisans; (3) National Programme for Public
Security and Citizenship; (4) pedagogical mediations in associated work;
(5) evaluation research with an NGO engaged in popular education. The
conclusions point to the importance of considering the interplay of the
social, political and pedagogical dimensions within a research practice." (author's abstract)