Turning to Practice with Action Research

Since the turn of the millennium, various ways of «turning to practice» have resurfaced as major concerns of organisational researchers. And once again, the call is out for relevant and actionable knowledge among management and organisational researchers. This book shows how action research and related approaches have turned to practice by developing knowledge both from practice and for practice without giving up on theoretical and methodological ambitions. Contributions from Norway, Ireland, France, and the USA are included, relating action based approaches to other more mainstream methodological and theoretical approaches. How can practical alternatives to both explanatory and interpretative approaches be developed? How can we devise methods that actually support both practical change and creation of valid knowledge? How can we include local knowledge in the research process? The authors – all organisation researchers – present different answers but are united in addressing and discussing urgent questions like these.

Since the turn of the millennium, various ways of «turning to practice» have resurfaced as major concerns of organisational researchers. And once again, the call is out for relevant and actionable knowledge among management and organisational researchers. This book shows how action research and related approaches have turned to practice by developing knowledge both from practice and for practice without giving up on theoretical and methodological ambitions. Contributions from Norway, Ireland, France, and the USA are included, relating action based approaches to other more mainstream methodological and theoretical approaches. How can practical alternatives to both explanatory and interpretative approaches be developed? How can we devise methods that actually support both practical change and creation of valid knowledge? How can we include local knowledge in the research process? The authors – all organisation researchers – present different answers but are united in addressing and discussing urgent questions like these.