Uma pesquisa participativa na costa uruguaia: características, desafios e oportunidades para o ensino universitário

Approaches that promote some kind of community participation have been increasingly used for addressing socio-environmental problems. One of these approaches is participatory research (PR), a research strategy in which diverse stakeholders work collaboratively around an issue of common interest. The group formed to carry out the research participates horizontally in every stage, from choosing the research question to the dissemination of the results. The application of this approach in university education represents a challenge from various perspectives: it redefines the role of the specialist; it questions the traditional views of science and its method; and it promotes the reflection, not only about these topics but about the research/action binomial. After characterizing the participatory research approach, the objective of this paper is to describe three experiences of university education related to a participatory research in the artisanal fishery of Piriapolis (Uruguay). Based on them we discuss the potentials and challenges of the inclusion of this approach in university education in Uruguay. The PR in Piriapolis was initiated in 2011 aiming at addressing local problems of the artisanal fishery among different stakeholders: artisanal fishers, university researchers, government agency in charge of fisheries management, and NGOs. This PR was initiated during a doctoral research, encompassed an undergraduate research, and served as a platform for an undergraduate course in sciences. From these experiences we argue that PR represents a transdisciplinary approach that strengthens, methodologically and conceptually, university initiatives for integral education with emphasis on inter or transdisciplinarity and knowledge dialogue. Additionally, PR can be compatible with undergraduate and graduate theses, and can be linked to diverse educational platforms.