GS2321: Action Research

Stellan Vinthagen

Lecture Outline
- Today we will discuss a slightly unusual and unconventional form of research: action research.
- We will first talk about the basics and then I will tell you about my (Stellan's) own experiences.

Action Research: The Basics
- Action research is not very well established and, as a result, is not as systematized as other research avenues.
- The suggested literature for this lecture can give you some ideas of how to use action research in your master’s thesis.
- Action research is the way that we experience and study the world, or at least that's what Stellan thinks.
- The action research cycle: plan, act, review/ reflect, repeat (This is how children interact with the world around them.)
- It is an exploratory method that combines both action and research.
- This may seem strange since traditional research methods discourage researcher/ subject interaction.
- However, a researcher can find out more through intervention then passive observation.
- Action research combines planned intervention with the resulting responses.
- The researcher necessarily involves his or herself in the process.
- This is the best way to find out how a social system really works.
- However there are problems. For example, how do you differentiate between your intervention(s) and the normal functioning of a social organization?
- Action research allows the researcher to take in information and challenge that information as well as the contradictions.
- Is action research ethical? In other words, is it ethical to intervene and/or challenge a social organization? Is it ethical to check up on the space between what people say they do and what they actually do?
> These are difficult questions to answer. However, you may overcome these ethical dilemmas by trying to help people and/or to support groups in achieving their goals.
- Action research is a method for reaching a deeper understanding of what's really going on.
- By challenging laws/ rules/ customs, you can make social norms visible.
- You don't know how strong a norm is until you challenge it. (Example: Buffet experiment in Norway.)
- Action research opens up a new world, a new approach to research.
- We live with the basic dichotomy of research as external observation--- this is the traditional approach taken from the natural sciences--- versus self-reflective practice--- this has long been regarded as an illegitimate research approach even though self-reflection is inherently social and human.
> I think (act, react, rethink), therefore I am.
- Action research is research through action.
- Action research is also known as social experimentation, collaborative research, and experiential learning.
- Action research is a way of doing research that creates a lot of data.
> It is messy and time consuming and thus is not always appropriate.
- In action research, it is necessary to be clear about what you are studying, the aspects on which you will focus, existing theories and models, and then initiate a creative intervention.
- For Stellan, action research is a way of making a contribution toward democracy, equality, liberty, and social change.
- How can you make action research acceptable?
> It's risky.
> People will inevitably criticize your involvement.
> But you can do things to help yourself out like reflecting on your assumptions and where you can find contradictory evidence which speaks against your assumptions; find several sources of data and methods for data gathering; when you have completed a preliminary analysis, go to the people you are studying and elicit their feedback; continuously engage in planning, action, and reflection.

Stellan's Action Research Experiences
- Non-violent direct action against arms factories and military bases
> Stellan and friends destroyed/ disarmed weapons at various locations.
> At the time, Stellan didn't see this as a form of research but it could have been.
> Later, this activist group formed a research group which made Stellan realize that research and action could be combined.
> Stellan wrote a book as a result of his involvement in this organization.

- Nonviolent resistance in South Africa
> Stellan interviewed members of the nonviolent resistance as well as the armed resistance--- which was an attempt to generate contradictory evidence.
> Stellan did his research as a non-participate.
> However, he had quite a lot of knowledge of the activities undertaken by the activists he interviewed because he had engaged in similar activities.

- World Bank/ IMF protests in Prague
> Stellan was a distant participant.
> He only focused on his research interests.
> He protested but he also took notes and photographs.
> In other words, he tried to observe and participate.
> He used his own experiences as an activist to help him understand what was going on.
> It became clear that one needs to be familiar with the activist culture in order to understand it.
> In other words, it is vital to be familiar with the environment you study.