P02 - Action Research Practices and Ambitions : Power, Identity Costs, and Impact
PANEL Organizers
• Bartels Koen (k.bartels@bangor.ac.uk), Bangor University (United Kingdom)
• Wittmayer Julia (wittmayer@drift.eur.nl), Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT), Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands)
SUMMARY
Action research has great potential for coproducing usable knowledge as well as grappling with the transformative ambitions of IPA. The goal of this panel is to further explore what both positive and negative experiences with action research (and adjacent approaches in which knowledge generation and transformative action go hand in hand) teach us about effective and legitimate practices as well as about the ambitions and expectations we might reasonably hold. Action research is subject to growing debate in the IPA community. Whereas up to recently it was hardly used, a panel we facilitated in 2013 led to an engaging first exploration and a symposium in Critical Policy Studies. At last year's conference the panel attracted a high number of presenters and a remarkably large interested and engaged audience. We therefore propose to continue the conversation focused on the topics that have emerged up to now, while remaining open to other relevant issues: 1) Systems, power, and critique in action research: e.g., how can we challenge engrained habits and power inequalities in hegemonic (policy and academic) systems (including working with power holders without being instrumentalized to their purposes)? 2) Uncomfortable selves and others: e.g., how can we bear and utilize identity costs and embodied experiences involved with negotiating the boundaries, scope, and results of the research? 3) Assessing impact and change: e.g., how can we evaluate action research practices (including hidden practices and future developments)? We welcome reflections on these (and other relevant) issues from a variety of backgrounds that will help to better grasp the practices (and the associated methods, roles, relationships, and theories) researchers use to co-produce knowledge as well as their ambitions for generating reflexivity, learning, and change.
KEY WORDS
Action research, methods, usable knowledge, reflexivity, learning, change
ROOM
Sciences Po Lille B2.1
SESSION 1 : 8/07/2015 : 13:15-14:45
Chair/ Discussant: Bartels Koen (k.bartels@bangor.ac.uk), Bangor University (United Kingdom)
• Criticality as tool for action research in governance settings: a framework
Schmachtel-Maxfield Stefanie (stefanie.schmachtel@gmx.net), University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
• CDA and Participatory Action Research: the presentation of a reflective research methodology
Montesano Montessori Nicolina (n.montesanomontessori@gmail.com), Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
• Research relations in researching transformative social innovation
Wittmayer Julia (wittmayer@drift.eur.nl), Avelino Flor (avelino@drift.eur.nl), Søgaard Jørgensen Michael (msjo@plan.aau.dk), Pataki Gyorgy (gyorgy.pataki@uni-corvinus.hu), Dumitru Adina (adina.dumitru@udc.es), Kunze Iris (iris.kunze@boku.ac.at), DRIFT, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands)
• The dilemmas and potential of co-designing interventions for Sustainable Behaviour Change
O'rafferty Simon (Simon.ORafferty@ul.ie), De Eyto Adam (Adam.DeEyto@ul.ie), Lewis Huw (Huw.Lewis@ul.ie), University of Limerick (Ireland)
• Dialogue between presenters and audience
