Journal•ISSN: 1476-7503
Action Research
SAGE Publishing
About: Action Research is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Action research & Participatory action research. It has an ISSN identifier of 1476-7503. Over the lifetime, 555 publications have been published receiving 15035 citations. The journal is also known as: AR.
Topics: Action research, Participatory action research, Action (philosophy), Empowerment, Health care
Papers published on a yearly basis
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TL;DR: In this paper, members of the editorial board of Action Research responded to the question, ''Why action research?" Based on their responses and the authors' own experiences as action researchers, they examined common themes and commitments among action researchers as well as exploring areas of disagreement and important avenues for future exploration.
Abstract: Members of the editorial board of Action Research responded to the question, `Why action research?' Based on their responses and the authors' own experiences as action researchers, this article examines common themes and commitments among action researchers as well as exploring areas of disagreement and important avenues for future exploration. We also use this opportunity to welcome readers of this new journal and to introduce them to members of the editorial board.
1,035 citations
TL;DR: Action research is an orientation to knowledge creation that arises in a context of practice and requires researchers to work with practitioners as discussed by the authors, and it is not primarily or solely to understand social arrangements, but also to effect desired change as a path to generating knowledge and empowering stakeholders.
Abstract: Action research is an orientation to knowledge creation that arises in a context of practice and requires researchers to work with practitioners. Unlike conventional social science, its purpose is not primarily or solely to understand social arrangements, but also to effect desired change as a path to generating knowledge and empowering stakeholders. We may therefore say that action research represents a transformative orientation to knowledge creation in that action researchers seek to take knowledge production beyond the gate-keeping of professional knowledge makers. Action researchers do not readily separate understanding and action, rather we argue that only through action is legitimate understanding possible; theory without practice is not theory but speculation. Our activist wing Action Research
455 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the groundings and practice of the concept and its associated applications are discussed, as well as the application of critical reflection in Participatory Action Research (PAR) research.
Abstract: Critical reflection is commonly seen as central to social transformation in Participatory Action Research (PAR). However, the groundings and practice of the concept and its associated applications ...
278 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a conceptual typology of 27 different flavors of action research, underpinned by the dimensions of voice, practice, and time, and argued that action research studies that include a greater proportion of the 27 types of methods are likely to account for more of the empirical variance in situations than do traditional social science studies.
Abstract: This article presents a conceptual typology of 27 different flavors of action research, underpinned by the dimensions of voice, practice, and time. This typology highlights how narrow a segment of reality is examined in most social science studies, as well as how fundamentally different the first- and second-person participatory study of the present and the future is from the third-person detached study of the past. We show that action research has multiple aims, including personal integrity and social mutuality as well as explaining empirical variance in intended outcomes. Far from diluting the positivist concern with validity, however, we argue that action research studies that include a greater proportion of the 27 types of methods are likely to account for more of the empirical variance in situations than do traditional social science studies.
271 citations
TL;DR: The success or failure of an action research venture often depends on what happens at the beginning of the inquiry process: in the way access is established, and on how participants and co-researchers are engaged early on.
Abstract: The success or failure of an action research venture often depends on what happens at the beginning of the inquiry process: in the way access is established, and on how participants and co-researchers are engaged early on. ‘Opening communicative space’ is important because, however we base our theory and practice of action research, the first steps are fateful. We draw on Habermas’s theorizing of the boundary-crises between system and lifeworld to explore the theory behind the idea of communicative space. We attempt to bring these abstract concepts to life, and to illustrate key aspects of action research practice through a review of some of the key challenges, opportunities, and paradoxes which emerge in the early stages of action research projects. Drawing on the literature and on exemplars, we show how the process of opening communicative space can be mapped onto a theory of group development that suggests a progression through phases of inclusion, control, and intimacy. Furthermore, we review an examp...
231 citations