Towards Quality Improvement of Action Research : : Developing Ethics and Standards / / Ben Boog, Meindert Slager, Julia Preece, Jacques Zeelen.

• TeilnehmendeR: Zeelen, Jacques,; Slager, Meindert,; Preece, Julia,; Boog, Ben,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, , Boston : : Brill | Sense,, 2008.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (vi, 238 pages)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

This book offers perspectives and challenges for action research in contemporary society with a particular reflection on ethics and standards. On the one hand the world is becoming smaller and much more open with tremendous opportunities for international exchange and multi-cultural enrichment. On the other hand the divide between the poor and the rich is deepening, international tensions are growing and the sustainability of the environment is under considerable threat on a worldwide basis. These trends are challenging politicians, civil society and social movements to search for problem solving strategies to deal with the risks of exclusion, poverty, social and physical insecurity and environmental deprivation. The intriguing question is what role action research could play in order to address these challenges? Action research has something to offer because it favours the connection between knowledge production and social change by means of partnerships between researchers, practitioners and a variety of client stakeholders. The focus is on providing the means to improve people’s self determination - to empower them in their roles as professional practitioners or citizens in the diverse social domains in which they live and work. Participatory action research and learning processes enable participants to improve the impact of services and programs in education, health care, urban and regional development, business, agriculture, arts, care of the elderly, leisure and many other spheres of social life. The approach of action research, which is rooted among others in the work of John Dewey and Kurt Lewin, covers nowadays a landscape of different concepts such as participatory action research, cooperative inquiry and action learning, to mention just a few. In this book scholars from those divergent concepts of action research present and discuss instructive examples of action research practices from developed as well developing countries. Special attention is paid to the vital issue of how this type of research can be conducted in a participatory, responsible, transparent and scientific way.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Ben Boog , Julia Preece , Meindert Slagter and Jacques Zeelen -- Introduction: Ethics and Standards in Action Research / Jacques Zeelen , Meindert Slagter , Ben Boog and Julia Preece -- Criteria for a Reflexive Approach to Knowledge Production / Coyan Tromp -- Aristotle, Validity, and Action Research / Olav Eikeland -- Action Research for Living Human Systems / Yoland Wadsworth -- Taking an Attitude of Inquiry / Judi Marshall and Peter Reason -- The Ethics of Action Research: Transcending Theory / Øyvind Pålshaugen -- Cross-Atlantic Dialogue on University-Based Action Research: Paths to Upward Epistemology / Barclay Hudson , Katrina Rogers and Gill Colemen -- Don’t Fight the Battle, Rather Swim… Action Research Ethics in Contemporary Academia / An De bisschop and André Mottart -- Combining Design-Based Research and Action Research to Test Management Solutions / Daniel Andriessen -- Extraction, Empowerment, and Relationships in the Practice of Participatory Research / Carl Wilmsen -- Involving Street Children in the Democratization of Urban Space / Anli Ataöv -- Multi-Perspective Interpretation of Environmental and Health-Data: A Search for Good Quality Action / Hans Keune , Nik van Larebeke , Greet Schoeters , Vera Nelen , Willy Bayens , Bert Morrens and Ilse Loots -- Democratic Knowledge Processes in Participatory Educational Research for Social Change / Gunilla Härnsten and Lars Holmstrand -- Action Research in Africa: Challenges and Perspectives / Josje van der Linden and Jacques Zeelen -- Understanding Chronic Illness Experience: Story Telling in Participatory Action Research / Tina Koch and Susan Mann -- Afterthoughts; The Ethos, Epistemology and Heuristics of Participatory Action Research / Ben Boog -- About the Authors / Jacques Zeelen , Meindert Slagter , Ben Boog and Julia Preece.