Wresinski’s Approach to Challenging the Measurement of Poverty, and the Definition of Knowledge – Donna Haig Friedman

Epistemological Critique and Knowledge – June 12, 2017

Round Table: Rethinking the Concept of Knowledge

Drawing upon past and present research experiences, Friedman uses two voices to share perspectives on Wresinski’s formidable and exacting insights. Her ‘participatory action research’ voice comes from direct participatory action research experiences. Her human voice comes less from any roles she has had in her career and more from her experiences as a human being, living and working alongside others to eradicate poverty and social exclusion in all its forms.

Friedman will share a few ‘war’ stories from working within a university setting. In her experience, the forces within the university that work against inclusion of those most directly affected by poverty are formidable, but are not insurmountable. She will also share what she has learned from her personal journey as an academic.

Friedman will then situate ATD’s long-standing Merging of Knowledge (MoK) approach within the rich, historical tradition of participatory action research across the world, and share what it looks like and what is understood about how to achieve rigor — trustworthiness of the process and learning — in carrying out participatory research. Lastly, she will share lessons learned from the MoK research projects she has been involved with to date.

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