Action-Research and the Negotiation of Change

Abstract

An action-research project is an intervention: an intervention in a world which is socially constructed and maintained. It is therefore unavoidably involved in the contested exercise of power by different social groups (cf. Giddens, 1976, pp. 110–13). The unequal distribution of power shapes the political debate and ensures that only a narrow range of policy options are considered. At the level of understanding, therefore, an action-research project can broaden the range of models under debate, demonstrating their feasibility on a small scale and thereby giving them some plausibility. At the level of action, the project will be both a resource which these various actors seek to control and an actor in their contested attempts to transform and recreate their world.