Activist research and city politics

Ethical lessons from youth-based public scholarship

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6134344
AutoresJohn Carr (0000-0002-5587-5512, University of New Mexico, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen10
Número1
Páginas61-78
Fecha de publicación2011-08-11
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAction Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1476-7503 • E-ISSN: 1741-2617
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1476750311414739
OpenAlexW1981767299
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas33

This article offers observations from an ongoing action research project involving advocacy for public skateboarding facilities in Seattle, Washington to demonstrate both the need for, and the inherent limits to an ethical framework for action rooted in the Kantian moral imperative of treating all people as ‘ends and not means'. By tracing the ethical dilemmas arising from work seeking to advocate on behalf of young people through conventional urban politics, I argue that a ‘covenantal’ ethic should be extended not only to the action researcher's research community, but also to those with whom we compete in the political arena. In support of this argument, Idescribe both the ethical problems arising from purporting to speak on behalf young people, and the difficulties in ethically seeking policy change through urban politics and planning – particularly given the tendencies for political debate to revolve around essentialized constructions of youth identities, and for urban planning processes to reinforce neighborhood level disparities in power

Action (physics · Action research · Argument (complex analysis · Collective action · Environmental ethics · Political action · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Law · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Public Administration · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics