Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change

by Davydd James Greenwood, Morten Levin

Overview

The Second Edition of Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change makes social science matter! It focuses on how it is possible to combine practical problem solving with generating new theoretical insights. Authors Davydd J. Greenwood and Morten Levin combine a thorough discussion of the epistemological foundations of action research with a broad overview of major contemporary trends in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412925976
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	10/18/2006
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Davydd J. Greenwood, Ph.D., At Cornell University for 37 years, Greenwood has conducted action research in the Spanish Basque Country, Spain’s La Mancha region, in Upstate New York, and in research universities, Greenwood has published Industrial Democracy as Process: Participatory Action Research in the Fagor Cooperative Group of Mondragón (with cooperative members); Teaching Participatory Action Research in the University in Studies in Continuing Education (with the students from the class), and Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change, first and second editions (with Morten Levin), Action Research: The Scandinavian Action Research Development Program, and articles and chapters in the Action Research, the International Journal of Action Research, the Handbook of Qualitative Inquiry, and the Handbook of Action Research. Davydd is working with the CIREM Foundation in Spain on a small business development program based on action research strategies including the construction of small business networks that create co-generative learning arenas. This involves two small business networks in Spain’s La Mancha region, one in Catalonia, and one in Madrid. Davydd is in the fifth year of an international project on the future of public higher education institutions with a particular emphasis on strategies for defending the “public goods” universities once created through action research strategies that engage cross-disciplinary stakeholder teams with external university constituencies in creating co-generative learning/action arenas that could reinvigorate public and political support for higher education. Morten Levin is a partner in both of these projects and Davydd and Morten are now initiating a period of examination of the concepts and practices of academic freedom from an action research perspective.

Table of Contents

What Is Action Research?
Introduction: Action Research, Diversity, and Democracy
A History of Action Research
Action Research Cases From Practice: The Stories of Stongfjorden, Mondragón, and Programs for Employment and Workplace Systems at Cornell University
Science, Epistemology, and Practice in Action Research
An Epistemological Foundation for Action Research
Scientific Method and Action Research
Social Science Research Techniques, Work Forms, and Research Strategies in Action Research
Knowledge Generation in Action Research: The Dialectics of Local Knowledge and Research-based Knowledge
The Friendly Outsider: From AR as a Research Strategy to the Skills Needed to Become an Action Researcher
Varieties of Action Research Praxis: Liberating Human Potential
Pragmatic Action Research
Power, Liberation, Adult Education, Feminism, and Social Reform
Educational Action Research
Participatory evaluation
Rapid Rural Appraisal, Participatory Rural Appraisal, and Participatory Learning and Analysis
Human Inquiry, Collaborative Inquiry, Cooperative Inquiry, Action Inquiry, Self-reflective Inquiry, and Mapping the Varieties of Action Research
Action Science and Organizational Learning
Action Research, Higher Education, and Democracy
Educating Action Researchers
Action Research, Participation, and Democratization

Editorial Reviews

"[This book] is an excellent addition to the bookshelf of any social change researcher. Additionally, it is a first-rate resource for educational researchers within organizations or the community. "

Margaret Mulligan

Introduces the history, philosophy, social change agenda, methodologies, ethical arguments for, and fieldwork tools for action research. Provides newcomers with an overview of various approaches and an understanding of the complexities of the intellectual and political streams that feed into AR. Assumes a background in formal social research or in social change-oriented action, and an interest in using this background experience as a starting point for learning about AR and its approaches to conducting social research. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

". . . Introduction to Action Research is an important addition to the literature. It is compelling reading on the political and social change perspective of action research—well theorized and inclusive of concrete examples."

Sandra Hollingsworth