Dear all,

Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG) members are very happy to present a training day on 2nd July in Edinburgh – the day before the annual RGS-IBG conference. The day is intended for postgraduate students, experienced researchers, and all (in and out universities) who wish to incorporate participatory action research (PAR) approaches into their work, among their communities and movements. For details, please see below

Please circulate widely to your relevant networks! Thanks.

Changing Our World Beyond the Ivory Tower: Participatory Geographies Training Day

Monday 2^nd July 2012, 9.30am – 5.30pm

Venue: Out of the Blue Arts & Education Trust, 36 Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh EH6 8RG

Cost: £10 (limited bursaries available)

To book a place, email [log in to unmask] by 31st May 2012. We will contact you with the payment details. Places are limited; please book early to avoid disappointment.


I. Panel Discussion, chaired by Sophie Wynne-Jones -  with Jayne Sellick, Justin Kenrick, Kye Askins, Paul Routledge 

'Changing Our World Beyond the Ivory Tower: Purposes, practical challenges and underlying ethics of Participatory Action Research'


II. Workshops in Participatory Geographies – Three Sessions

A - Becoming allies: committing to radical research relationships - with Camilla Born and Kristina Diprose
This workshop will employ anti-oppression training techniques to explore how we conduct ourselves as learners, teachers and researchers.

B - PAR Pit-Stop - with Sophie Wynne-Jones, Larch Maxey, Kye Askins, Pete North and others from PyGyRG
A workshop to problem-solve and explore the potential of undertaking participatory action research.

C - Participatory Video Making - with Namita Singh
This workshop will offer a space to discuss PV as a research method and learn some basic skills for using it within research.

D - Spontaneity and complicity: Individual expression and communal participation for researchers - with Lotte Reimer and Kelvin Mason
On one level this workshop is just fun and games! Based on the training techniques of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA), it draws on situated knowledges from both direct activism and street theatre.


The Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG) is a research group of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).

Participatory geographers often seek to work in bottom-up ways with the goal of actively engaging and benefiting groups outside academia so that traditional barriers between 'expert researcher' and 'researched community' are broken down. A key ethical tenet of their work might be not just to do no harm, but to do good (on participants' terms, rather than academics').

For more information, please see http://www.pygyrg.org