Knowledge Democracy, Community-based Action Research, the Global South and Excluded North in H. Bradbury

Abstract

This chapter explores the concept of knowledge democracy. Drawing from arguments advanced by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Budd Hall and others, the chapter reflects on the continuing dominance of the west European patriarchal knowledge canon and shows with examples the power of the action research approach that sinks its roots into a more than patriarchal Western knowledge canon in addressing real-life problems in the global south and excluded north. We then propose an action research agenda for the future that is more inclusive of a wider ecology of knowledge.