Introduction: Research with Youth

In this special issue of Practicing Anthropology, we promote the idea that participatory action research, rooted in the applied social sciences, is a unique and important approach to transforming urban young people, their peer groups, and their communities. Youth PAR is a community approach to youth development, and activism that integrates research methods with critical thinking, communication skills and analysis of personal, community and structural disparities. With the help of numerous young people from Connecticut and around the country, and like-minded (as well as critical) local partners, we have experimented with the theory, conduct and evaluation of Youth-PAR for the past fifteen years. During that time, we have discovered colleagues around the globe who have also found this approach central to their work with young people.