The Centre has a reputation for its contribution to original thinking about the ethics and methodology of participatory action research (PAR). Ethical guidelines developed through the Centre have been used worldwide (including by the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research) and our work on the nature of impact in participatory research has also been influential. Our popular annual training course for doctoral researchers and community organisations is always over-subscribed and has supported many UK PhD students to develop confidence and skills in adopting PAR approaches. 

Members of the Centre are involved in a range of projects on substantive topics ranging from researching the guide association as a sustainable youth organisation in the UK, through grassroots pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, to rethinking bidi (leaf cigarette) rolling as a livelihood in Vellore, South India. What they all have in common is a commitment to engaging people affected by the issue under study in designing and doing the research and using the research to bring about socially just change.