Agenda Items:

        1. Principle Components of AR (and Participatory Strategies)

        2. Participatory Allies with AR

        3. Defining AR

        4. Participatory / AR Methods

        5. Areas of Application in Social Life

        6. AR and Experimental Academic Write-Up Formats

        7. Societal Consequences of AR (and Participatory Strategies)

        8. Strategies to Widely Apply AR in Society

        9. Bibliography on AR
 

1. Principle Components of AR (and Participatory Strategies):

• Communities collaboratively design projects (participants include community members, their leadership and representatives, relevant government agencies, the NGO civil sector and other interested groups)
• The generation of prosperity for the involved communities (income, services, food, jobs, enhanced social relationships, better decision-making capacities and effective natural resource management)
• Action researcher (third-party facilitator) helps to ensure an inclusive dialogue process, maintain the negotiating momentum among the parties, assist in procuring funding for the projects designed and communicate through formal reports, theses and dissertations the outcomes of the experience to major institutional stake-holding groups

2. AR is allied with:

• Practitioner Research
• New Paradigm Research
• Teacher-as-Researcher
• Future Search
• Participatory Design
• Participatory Rural Appraisal
• Participatory Analysis for Community Action
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Strategic Development Planning
• Holistic Management
• Ecology, Community Organization and Gender Approach to Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Development
• Community-based Dialogue for Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation
• Problem-solving Workshop for Racial and Ethnic Conflicts

3. Definitions of Action Research (the "action" quality of the definition is in italics and the "research" aspect is underlined):

• "The linking of the terms action and research highlights the essential feature of the method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of improvement and as a means of increasing knowledge" (Kemmis and McTaggart, 1982).
• "A collaborative approach to investigation that seeks to engage 'subjects' as equal and full participants in the research process. If an AR project does not make a difference, in a specific way, for practitioners and/or their clients, then it has failed to achieve its objectives" (Stringer, 1999).
• "A disciplined inquiry (research) which seeks focused efforts to improve the quality of people's organizational, community and family lives" (Calhoun, 1993).
• "A way to harness forms of collaboration and participation. It starts small with a single committed person focusing on his/her practice. It spreads as individuals reflect on the nature of their participation, and the principle of shared ownership of practice is established. It can result in the formation of a self-critical community" (Lomax, 1990).

QUESTION:

• Why is the "researcher-facilitator" not included in the assembled definition of AR?
• Which goal is primary--improving quality of life ("action") or gaining knowledge ("research")?

4. Participatory / AR Methods: see attached methods and also my Participatory Community Development course website, www.unm.edu/~soc101/
 

5. Areas of Application in Social Life:

• evaluating a food cooperative
• designing an interdisciplinary education program
• designing a program for preventing DWI
• policing
• judicial system
• designing cities
• family therapy
• health care
• natural resource management
• welfare services
• government planning
• the classroom (student ownership of their educational experience)
• establishing a teenage music center
• relationships in neighborhoods
• workplaces
• churches
• human transgender community
• analyzing the parallels between "community-based dialogue for racial and ethnic reconciliation" and Navajo peacemaking
• enhancing the relationships, services and income of a group of massage therapists

6. AR and Experimental Academic Write-Up Formats (taken from Stringer, E., 1999, Action Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage):
 

7. Societal Consequences of AR (and Participatory Strategies):

• Decentralization (greater reliance on local capacities, including decision making and resources) and the resulting less "dependency" on external relationships
• Economic flexibility (a "fundamental" necessity for economic development) achieved through reduced risk on investments (shared losses) and "adaptive" decision making
• Simultaneously satisfying self and communal interests, and thereby 1) diminish "alienation" (people's actions no longer contradict their true purposes) and 2) have forged productive and trustful social relationships (including private-public partnerships)
• Serving the agendas of many social theoretical perspectives
• "Ancient" qualities of participatory development

8. Strategies to Widely Apply AR in Society:

• Train school teachers
• Establish "Action Research Centers" (third-party facilitation and training centers)
• Create a "Department (or Ministry) of Facilitation"--a government agency operating at the local, regional and national levels whose function is to coordinate community development strategies among other departments (ministries) and NGOs
• "When in doubt, plant a tree."

9. Bibliography on AR:

• Calhoun, E. (October, 1993) Action Research: Three Approaches, Educational Leadership, 51(2), 62-65.
• Carson, T. (ed.) (1997) Action Research as a Living Practice, New York: P. Lang.
• Denzin, (1997) Interpretive Ethnography, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Greenwood, D. (1998) Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Johnson, A. (2002) A Short Guide to Action Research, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
• Kemmis, S. and McTaggart, R. (1998) The Action Research Planner, Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
• McNiff, J. (2002) Action Research: Principles and Practice, New York: Routledge.
• Mills, G. (2000) Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
• Pilotta, J. (2001) Communication and Social Action Research, Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Stringer, E. (1999) Action Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Zuber-Skerritt, O. (ed.) (1996) New Directions in Action Research, London: Flamer Press.