Deepening and scaling participatory research with the poorest and most marginalised

This paper assesses three research projects focusing respectively on disability, peace building and slavery in a variety of international development contexts. It discusses the evolution of methodologies which enable meaningful and extensive participation in the research process by people living in poverty and marginalisation, and which enable participatory methods to go to scale. The paper shows how these processes are built on methodological pluralism combined with iterative methodological reflection. The paper argues that large scale participatory processes of this sort demonstrate significant methodological rigour and analytical robustness, and are highly effective processes for generating impactful systemic intervention.