This paper was inspired by the debate between Hammersley (1999), Atkinson and Delamont (2009) and Denzin and Lincoln (2009 [2008]) on the dynamics of qualitative methods development and by the unsettling reductionism and fragmentation of analyses within qualitative research revealed by Atkinson. Similar critique of superficiality in biographical methods has also been formulated by scholars from the interpretative sociology tradition in Łódź (Czyżewski, 2016; Kaźmierska, 2012; Konecki, 2019; Piotrowski, 2016; Waniek, 2019), whose work is applied in pedagogy. The biographical research I conduct in small local communities reveals shifts in the positioning of research participants, but also alterations in the dynamics of grassroot inquiry initiatives in line with Participatory Inquiry Paradigm as described by Heron and Reason (1997). This article aims to characterize the “new” type of research participants, who organize and are involved in (non-academic) “research/amateur teams” within local communities, becoming collective agents of social action. Does it mean that the new “social/research awareness” (Heron & Reason, 1997) of both local actors and academic scholars who “join forces”, along with easy access to the sources, transnational links, and higher level of education trigger grassroot potential of pro-social behavior and a multi-level, polyphonic (Clifford, 1983), conscious and subconscious participation in the life of local communities?