Initiating action research
Challenges and paradoxes of opening communicative space
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6134432 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia Gayá Wicks (University of Bristol), Peter Reason (0000-0002-4271-7144, University of Bath) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 243-262 |
| Publication date | 2009-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Action Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1476-7503 • E-ISSN: 1741-2617 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1476750309336715 |
| OpenAlex | W2171273454 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 75 |
| References cited | 33 |
The success or failure of an action research venture often depends on what happens at the beginning of the inquiry process: in the way access is established, and on how participants and co-researchers are engaged early on. ‘Opening communicative space’ is important because, however we base our theory and practice of action research, the first steps are fateful. We draw on Habermas’s theorizing of the boundary-crises between system and lifeworld to explore the theory behind the idea of communicative space. We attempt to bring these abstract concepts to life, and to illustrate key aspects of action research practice through a review of some of the key challenges, opportunities, and paradoxes which emerge in the early stages of action research projects. Drawing on the literature and on exemplars, we show how the process of opening communicative space can be mapped onto a theory of group development that suggests a progression through phases of inclusion, control, and intimacy. Furthermore, we review an example of third-person action research to illustrate some of the issues raised by the need for both external and internal validation. We conclude that the practices of opening communicative space are necessarily paradoxical, and put forward a list of paradoxes with which facilitators and initiators of action research may need to engage in the start-up phases of their work
Action (physics · Action research · Communicative action · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Inclusion (mineral · Key (lock · Lifeworld · Pedagogy · Process (computing · Social science · Sociology · Community Health and Development · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Engineering · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Psychology
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research
Identidad Docente frente a Ia Calidad como Estandarización en las Escuelas de la Región del Biobío
Negotiating Reality
Construction of educational knowledge with the Mapuche community through dialogical-kishu kimkelay ta che research
Dialogic- kishu kimkelay ta che educational research
Bienestar desde el conocimiento mapuche
Interculturalidad entre saberes oficiales del currículum escolar y saberes locales en aulas comunitarias
Co-creation in citizen social science
Exploring vulnerability and risk in an action research writing group
Performance as transformation / transformative
Everyday governance on the Somalia‐Kenya border
Oral History in der Medizin – Herausforderungen und Chancen
Self-in-Field Action Research in Natural Spaces of Encounter
Communicative competences required in initial teacher training for primary school teachers of Spanish language in contexts of linguistic diversity
Fokusgruppen in der partizipativen Forschung
Climate change perspectives and adaptation strategies of business enterprises
Improving Collaboration Between Staff, Family Members, and Artists in Long-Term Dementia Care
Invisibility of Racism in the Global Neoliberal Era
Developing a Framework for Research Evaluation in Complex Contexts Such as Action Research
A scoping review
Improving regional waste management using the circular economy as an epistemic object
Perceptions of Local Environmental Issues and the Relevance of Climate Change in Nepal's Terai
Transformando el Menosprecio en Reconocimiento. Comunidades Escolares Movilizadas
Designing communicative spaces – innovative perspectives on teacher education
The researcher as a negotiator – exploring collaborative professional development projects with teachers
Action, research and participation
Insider action research in palliative care – the challenges of implementing digital health in a hospice organisation in the UK
From silos to inter-professional collaboration
Art as experience
The Youth Activist Forum
Playing with Fire and Getting Burned’
Project leadership in regional development coalitions
What's in the 'co'? Tending the tensions in co-creative inquiry in social work education
Support for Children’s Protagonism
Embracing Vulnerability in Writing Migrant Lives
Navigating power dynamics in engaging communities in end-of-life issues – Lessons learned from developing community-based intergenerational arts initiatives about death and loss
Animating community supported agriculture in North East England
Our secret stick-it-to-the-man group
University degree benefits and labour market experiences of non-traditional graduates in Uganda
Una educación con justicia social
How action research can make deliberative policy analysis more transformative
Carpe the academy
Participatory Research Methods
The challenges of innovation for sustainable agriculture and rural development
Researching Local Subjectivities in Contested Contexts
Facilitating learning at multiple levels with Systems Thinking‐assisted serious games
Influencing factors of spatial conflicts in the Chinese urban environment from the perspective of spatial politics
Doing action research in organizations
Participatory action research to enhance the collective involvement of residents in elderly care
Participation as a multi-voiced process
You defend what you feel
Getting beneath the surface in program planning, monitoring and evaluation
Toward community food security through transdisciplinary action research
Action research for multi-level facilitation of improvement in health and social care
Collaborative participatory action strategies for re-envisioning young men’s masculinities
Engaging in community conversation
The interactive researcher as a virtual participant
Why action needs compassion
The Beginning is never the beginning
Participatory action research
Communicative space and the emancipatory interests of action research
How participatory action research supported improvements to the postnatal discharge summary system used for remote dwelling Aboriginal mothers and infants in the Top End of Australia
Restorative action research
Leadership practice as interaction in primary care emergency team training
Working together for a meaningful daily life for older persons
Keys to unlocking service provider engagement in constrained co-production partnerships
Engagement enacted
A child, a tree
Introduciendo componentes metodológicos a la convivencia escolar
Participation in sociolinguistic research
Reconceptualising the Cyclical Process in Participatory Action Research
I am Pleased to Share my Thoughts and Opinions'- Including Marginalised People with Disabilities in Inclusive Qualitative Research in Bangladesh Through Creative, Relational Methodologies
Thinking with autoethnography in collaborative research
Opening communicative space
"Encountering "Gerald
The action turn
Black Women
The Sage Handbook of Action Research
Resolving Social Conflicts
Action Research and Minority Problems
Experiences in Groups
Prajateerpu, Power and Knowledge
Transforming Inquiry and Action
Beloved Bangladesh
Being, Becoming and Belonging
From first-person inquiry to radical social action
Emancipation or workability
An understanding of poverty from those who are poor
Finding the ‘action’ in feminist participatory action research
Intimate details
Firo
Developmental sequence in small groups
From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences
| Unique citing works | 75 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,69 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 73 |