The potential impact of extreme egalitarianism and self-declared gatekeepers on the cooperation between the university and the community - the experiences of a domestic participatory action research

Abstract

In this article, we reflect on university-community partnerships based on our experiences related to a participatory action research (PAR) process in partnership with Roma representatives and underclass Roma communities in Hungary. The focus will be on the influence of two innercommunity factors: extreme egalitarianism and self-declared gatekeepers. We reflect on the pragmatic and ethical dilemmas and contradictions these phenomena might cause in relation to university-community cooperation. Our results show that the presence of these factors might push the cooperation into a contradictory direction both in a moral and practical sense. Participants might often feel that they have to make compromises concerning those values and standards which they are committed to (e.g. at the expense of equality, justice and emancipation for the workability of the cooperation). These pressures also make the practical effects of cooperative processes contradictory and uncertain. Therefore, on one hand working by the approach of PAR, choosing the engaged and cooperative way committed to equality, social justice, participation and emancipation is not the easy way of academic work. However, action orientated university-community partnerships (including PAR) force researchers to test the workability of their academic knowledge by applying it in real-life situations and interventions. This way such processes enrich academic knowledge (of researchers) in a way which does not happen in conventional research approaches and thus secure a new level (quality) of understanding compared to conventional research approaches.