Situating this special issue on "Participatory Approaches in Researching Multilingualism:Democratisation and Social Impact" in the current global moment, this commentary discusses the intellectual and political stakes of participatory research in anti-intellectual, undemocratic times. The discussion draws on insights from the introductory essay and the contributors' research articles to explore the various ways that the authors answer the question: What does it mean to participate in research? Answers offered by the papers raise issues of researcher and participant positionality; participation as a matter of degree; the dialogic and discovery-based nature of participatory research; and the temporalities of participation. The commentary then considers two challenges facing scholars doing participatory research: inequity in the research relationship and institutional inequities that devalue such work. The essay concludes by enumerating some of the ideals of participatory research illustrated in and inspired by the special issue.
Mary Bucholtz (Thu,) studied this question.