Researcher, Observer, Actor? Return to Participatory Action Research in Mexico

Abstract

This paper focuses on various positions of observation in a doctoral research in Mexico. The specific conditions of that research and its aim to set up a double process, academic and social, in the co-construction of knowledge, made it necessary for the observer to switch between different statuses. At first, in order to discuss the possibility to start a rural community based tourism activity, a participating observation helped to define the territory through the perception of identities. Then, in the course of a research-action process, the observer became an actor integrated in the discussion on the subject of tourism. This article explores the complex relationships between the scholar and the community and underlines in a critical perspective the issues that stem from the unsettled position of the observer in the research-action process.