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This article looks at the relationship between social work, democracy, participatory research and radical social work. We show how radical social work contributes to the renewal of greater eco-social justice and a new democratic contract in the context of the distrust expressed by a part of the European population. This critical look at the participation of actors in public policies examines the links that social work has with the political, economic and social context, and its power to influence local, national and global democratic issues. Science also plays a role in this democratic renewal and participatory research, if conducted with radicality and according to the principles outlined in this article, can become once again an instrument of democratic, political and societal transformations by redefining power relations and focusing on the roots of the inequalities that affect Western societies today.