Epistemic injustice and dissidence: A bibliometric analysis of the literature on participatory action research hosted on the Web of Science

For decades, Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been extended as a scientific praxisapplied in different contexts, characterised by the involvement of participating groups andoriented towards social transformation. However, there is a certain dialectical tensionbetween those approaches that emphasise the method versus those that emphasise thepursuit of social change from a decolonial perspective. This article questions how thispraxis is reflected in scientific transfer, analysing not only the development and scope of scientific production in PAR, but also how the academy may reproduce relations inherentto coloniality in this transfer. To this end, the production on PAR hosted on the Web ofScience (WoS) is collected, and a bibliometric analysis is performed by applying descriptiveand relational techniques using VosViewer software. The study concludes thatscientific production has not stopped growing and that the areas of knowledge where it isapplied have diversified. However, it also points out how the knowledge productionmodel reproduces the power relations of coloniality, affecting PAR’s transfer. Thisanalysis can contribute to the debate on a scientific approach oriented to improveprocesses of social transformation.