Understanding the effect of participatory action research on empowerment of marginalized people in Tehran with a social innovation approach (Farahzad and Khavarshahr )

Abstract

One of the most fundamental social damages in Iran is the marginalization in large cities. Empowering these people is not possible with purely government resources and requires the use of empowerment methods based on social entrepreneurship (SE). On the other hand, due to the presence of multiple stakeholders for co-creation, there are many challenges when it comes to implementing SE. There is, however, little evidence as to how the process of SE works. The present study, using a participatory action research strategy to analyzing the SE cycle of "poultry self-sufficiency" aimed at empowering and creating jobs for the disadvantaged and the marginalized in parts of Tehran, Iran (Farahzad and Khavar Shahr) as a sustainable solution. In this action research, key activities undertaken during the four segments of the SE cycle were analyzed by the researchers. The results of the action research are as follows: 1- creating jobs for people with few or no skills; 2- eliminating the cycle of poverty 3- stabilizing the process by linking different parts of the organic supply chain 4- effectively changing the process of benevolent assistance. The results showed that SE has the greatest effect when actors in different parts of society contribute and cooperate.

Keywords

• social innovation
• social entrepreneurship
• participatory research action
• poultry self-sufficiency
• empowerment