Another step in the study of race relations

Recent qualitative researchers have argued the need for a more sensitizing approach to race research that elevates in importance the concerns and inte rests of those under study. This article illustrates how Herbert Blumer's w ork on race relations, critical race theory, and participatory action resea rch may help this objective. These projects' similar epistemologies advance a type of social imagery that has powerful emancipatory implications in re gard to racial oppression. Simply put, dominant renditions of social realit y-including structural imperatives and racial identities-are illustrated to be socially constructed and hence open to negotiation. As a result of this shift, sensitizing methodologies (e.g., storytelling and collaboration) ar e employed that allow minorities an opportunity for self-representation. Th e liberating potential of all these projects can be further enhanced by rel ating their conceptual links to recent developments in contemporary social theory. Specifically, the typical concerns with process, interaction, and e xperiential meanings are intersubjectively mediated and not reducible to an objective-subjective theoretical framework. Rather than simply personal or external, all knowledge is recognized to be fluid and coproduced. By groun ding research on this intersubjective region, equitable exchanges are possi ble.