Email this article Praxical integrity: Imagining constructive and purposeful training for liberating decolonial community interventions
Abstract
In community intervention it is important to reflect and engage in training on how to relate to others in ways that are not oppressive or colonial, but rather liberating, because oppressive relationships are not dismantled solely through critique, but also through the active construction of new and transformative ways of relating. To advance this effort, this article seeks to offer guidance for those of us engaged in community intervention and training, to develop approaches and intervention actions related to the institutional framework, community intervention agents, and participants, moving toward a relational position that fosters liberation. To this end, based on empirical findings from a research project, we introduce the concept of praxical integrity, which is composed by approaches associated with the institutional framework (commitment with social justice approach, participatory approach, situated approach, critical approach and care approach), approaches associated with the bond between community intervention agent and participant (strengthened bond approach, autonomy and agency approach, awareness and reflexivity approach, and dignity and humanization approach) and intervention actions (frame, guide, inform, connect, follow-up, motivate, support emotionally, conscientize and empower). We discuss how praxical integrity, in order to be developed, requires safe spaces in both community intervention and training, so that institutional representatives, community intervention agents, and participants can trust and explore liberating ways of relating to one another. We understand this as a form of training that is both grounded in and oriented toward the development of radical solidarity and decolonial love in community intervention.
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