Action research

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In the social sciences common terms for action - and action research are synonymous translations of by Kurt Lewin coined the term action research . As a critique of a purely experimental social psychology, he wanted to establish a science whose hypotheses are practical and whose implications lead to changes in the sense of problem-solving. With its explicit imperative to act, it should be an alternative to what he believed to be a non-commissioned, responsible science that would remove any alienation from theory and practice.

Origin and Distribution

Action research, although originally located exclusively in social psychology , has expanded into a variety of areas ( management theory , pedagogy , social research , development cooperation, psychosocial work, etc.) over several generations of researchers . It inspired concepts such as organizational development , applied anthropology , the action learning approach or the work of the Tavistock Institute . Today it appears particularly within interdisciplinary projects in the social sciences . Within the psychology itself finds hardly any application.

The first generation of action research

The term action research probably goes back to the US government commissioner for Indian affairs, John Collier. From 1933 to 1945 he worked on improving relations between indigenous people and whites and tried to achieve this goal through close cooperation with the indigenous tribes concerned using a strategy of joint problem identification, analysis and processing, which he called "action research "designated

Kurt Lewin , who held a chair at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , took up this approach and gave it a programmatic version as action research in 1944. In the literature, his concept first appeared in a 1946 article entitled Action Research and Minority Problems . In it he describes action research as comparative research dealing with the effects of numerous forms of social intervention and research into social change. He described the methodology as a repeating spiral of three steps: (1) planning, (2) social intervention in the field and (3) reflection on the results of the intervention.

Between 1948 and 1950 the Tavistock Institute at the Glacier Metal Company conducted an action research project aimed at improving employee motivation and collaboration. Among other things, this led to a greater say for employees in the works council.

The second generation of action research

In the late sixties and early seventies, a second generation of action researchers in Great Britain and finally Australia gave action research a socially critical impetus that was increasingly popular in Europe. Action researchers emphasized that social science research has always been normative and that researchers, aware of their social constraints, must understand their work as emancipatory and political. In Germany, pedagogues, sociologists and psychologists in particular took up the approaches to generate an alternative to research standards such as objectivity and neutrality within the social sciences, as these were increasingly criticized across national borders. On the one hand, an increasing detachment and decoupling of the social sciences from the social reality of the research field was criticized. Action researchers observed that the social sciences paradoxically distanced themselves from their own subject. On the other hand, they observed that the social sciences, by claiming neutrality, entered into an implicit alliance with social powers and definitions that did not change social structures, but rather affirms and reproduces them.

The third generation of action research

Finally, a third generation of action research shaped social workers, theologians and educators in the spirit of social movements in Latin America and Africa, which also became increasingly important in English-speaking countries and especially in Scandinavia: participatory action research. The approach developed by practitioners such as Paulo Freire , Orlando Fals Borda , Rajesh Tandon , Anisur Rahman and Marja-Liisa Swantz relies on a combination of science and social commitment. Fals-Borda writes: "One must combine (theoretical) study and (practical) action in order to work against the conditions of dependence and exploitation that have characterized and determined us with all of their degrading consequences and mechanisms of oppression. This is evident clearly in our culture of imitation and poverty and in the lack of social and economic participation that characterizes our people. " The participation of researchers in social projects was accordingly eponymous for the approach of participatory action research. He was supposed to develop an awareness of social changeability, which Freire called conscientizacao. It is hoped that by understanding to what extent their social practices are based on material, social and historical circumstances, they will gain a new perspective on possible ways of transforming the respective circumstances that they produce and reproduce through their daily actions.

This orientation of social science research has the consequence that a working relationship between researchers and subjects trained to become co-researchers emerges from the relationship between researchers and those being researched. A working relationship that follows the cyclical research process already conceived by Lewin: The project planning turns into concrete action, which is observed and evaluated together and finally leads to a new planning that initiates further actions. The aim of the research process is realism and transparency, practical relevance and interaction; The generalizability of results is sought rather secondary, if at all.

criticism

At the end of the 1970s, action researcher Heinz Moser asked what the concrete content of such joint action-reflection processes was and what dilemmas they might face. He writes “In many cases, there are scant references to 'emancipation', 'social change', 'appeal to the humanization of humanity'. The subject-becoming, of which action researchers cannot stop speaking, ultimately seems to be an abstraction : an abstraction from concrete historical-social processes in which such a subject-becoming can take place. ?? ”This abstraction would only be insufficient in the social practice, so that the action-reflection process is reduced to the actions in the here and now and there is the risk of a concealed inductivism that relies on an apparent immediacy that forgets that all our experiences are pre-structured by horizons of expectation . For this reason, despite numerous references to neo-Marxist, communitarian or human rights theories, the approach is confronted with the accusation of under-theorising, which, more pointedly, leads to the criticism that certain ideologies are followed that are not made explicit and thus reflection on one pragmatic target comparison will be reduced. In turn, in both phases, action and reflection, this can lead to dependencies on the researcher, who implicitly takes the lead and thus does not create any knowledge that can be shared and used independently by the participants.

Goals, procedures and issues

The aim of action research is to address specific problems from practice and to enable direct social action . The relationship between researchers and those affected is characterized by symmetrical communication structures : because research that produces nothing other than books is of no use to the individual.

Action research is occasionally accused of a lack of science . The reason for this lies in the concern of action research. As soon as the researcher tries to actively influence the actions of people with political or moral intent, the difference between science and ideology disappears.

Action research in pedagogy and didactics

Pedagogy and didactics appear particularly suitable for action research, and here mainly the methodology : the intensive focus on the research subject “teaching” greatly increases the practical relevance of the results compared to hermeneutic procedures. However, this research approach is only chosen by a few scientists because it is very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Action Research in Social Science

A 1993 survey on the current status of action research showed that this concept had practically disappeared from the German-language social science debate. Reasons were the focus on the implementation of research projects instead of theoretical further development, disillusioning reports on concrete projects, the lack of international networking and the development of qualitative research methods since the late 1970s.

This assessment does not take into account action research in the world of work, which is located at the interface between industrial and social science . It had its starting point in the German action program Humanisation of Working Life in the 1970s and was carried out in close dialogue with English and Scandinavian activities.

Action research in the world of work

Kurt Lewin emigrated to the USA in 1933 and began to work there from 1939 to solve social conflicts, initially in collaboration with the Harwood textile factory in Virginia, and later in experimental groups. He devoted himself particularly to practical and theoretical questions of group dynamics and developed the first elements and methods of action research.

Origin and Distribution

Although Kurt Lewin, a German social psychologist (1890–1947), is considered the father of action research , it did not take off until after 1950 in relation to the world of work. This happened particularly in England (Trist / Bamforth 1951) and then in Scandinavia. In large national action research programs, such as “Industrial democracy in Norway” under Fred Emery and Einar Thorsrud, the “Leadership, Organization, Medbestämmande (LOM)” program in Sweden under the direction of Björn Gustavsen. Both programs are internationally known, theoretically and practically successful action research programs.

In Germany, action research played no practical or theoretical role in the world of work until the 1970s. The first impetus for company action research projects came with the early phase of the action program “Research on the Humanization of Working Life (HdA)” in the mid-1970s ( Matthöfer 1980). Despite its name, the HdA program as a whole was not an action research program according to the English and Scandinavian tradition. It offered multiple opportunities to finance and carry out multi-year action research projects in Germany for the first time. examples are

In the 1980s it became more difficult to finance action research projects from the humanization program and its successor program “Work and Technology”. In the meantime, the debate about action research in working life has resumed due to the multiple operational restructuring in the course of the globalization of work and the economy. One of the goals of this is the production of qualitatively new ergonomic findings and processes for humane work design.

Special elements

Based on his experience as an action researcher in the world of work and in knowledge of the international literature on action research in the world of work, Werner Fricke (2010/2011) names the following central elements of work-related action research.

  • Action research is process-oriented. The research process is itself an exercise in democratic participation (see the criteria of democratic dialogue in Gustavsen 1992, p. 3/4) and may therefore be more important than its results.
  • Action research is a dialogue between scientists and practitioners (Palshaugen; Eikeland). He especially lets those who have been speechless have their say (workers in repressive working conditions).
  • Action research practices the unity of recognition and change : "If you want to understand an organization, change it" ( Kurt Lewin ).
  • Action research means collective self-reflection - not only among scientists, but also among practitioners among themselves and with scientists (Olav Eikeland 2007).
  • Action research promotes the democratization of social conditions ; this happens through democratic dialogues in the research process as well as through the creation of public reflective spaces (Oyvind Palshaugen 2002) as a condition for the democratization of work ( industrial democracy ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt Lewin: Action Research and Minority Problems . 1948. In: K. Lewin (Ed.): The solution of social conflicts . Christian-Verlag, Bad-Neuheim, pp. 278-298.
  2. ^ Kurt Lewin: Group Decision and Social Change . In: TM Newcomb & EE Hartley (Eds.): Readings in social psychology . Holt, New York 1952, pp. 459-473 (English).
  3. ↑ Wendell L. French, Cecil H. Bell: Organizational Development, Social Science Strategies for Organizational Change . Paul Haupt Verlag, Bern / Stuttgart 1973/1994, ISBN 978-3-258-04984-7 .
  4. ↑ Werner Stangl: Action research . 1997, accessed June 28, 2017.
  5. ^ U. Schneider: Sociological method crisis and action research . Campus, Frankfurt / Main 1980.
  6. ↑ D. Greenwook, M. Levin: Reform of the social sciences, and of universities through action research . In: N. Denzin, Y. Lincoln (Eds.): Handbook of qualitative research . 3rd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA 2005, pp. 43-64 (English).
  7. ↑ S. Kemmis, R. McTaggart: Participatory action research: Communicative action and the public sphere . In: N. Denzin, Y. Lincoln (Eds.): Handbook of qualitative research . 3rd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA 2005, pp. 559-603.
  8. ↑ O. Fals Borda: On the problem of how to explore reality in order to change it . In: H. Moser, H. Ornauer (Eds.): International aspects of action research . Kösel, Munich 1978, pp. 78-112.
  9. ↑ P. Freire: Creating alternative research methods: Learning to do it by doing it . In: B. Hall, A. Gillette, R. Tandon (Eds.): Creating knowledge: A monopoly? . New Delhi: Society for Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi 1982, pp. 29-37 (English).
  10. ^ P. Freire: Pedagogy of the oppressed . Penguin, London 1996/1973 (English).
  11. ^ WF Whyte, DF Greenwood, P. Lazes: Participatory action research: Through practice to science in social research . In: WF Whyte (Ed.): Participatory action research . Sage, Newbury Park, CA 1991, pp. 19-55.
  12. ↑ H. Moser: Some aspects of action research in international comparison . In: H. Moser, H. Ornauer (Eds.): International aspects of action research . Kösel, Munich 1978, pp. 173-189.
  13. ↑ M. Markard: Methodology of Subject Scientific Research. Beyond the dispute about qualitative and quantitative methods . Argument, Berlin 1993.
  14. ^ I. Kapoor: The devil's in the theory: A critical assessment of Robert Chambers' work on participatory development . In: Third World Quarterly , 23 (1), 2002, pp. 101-117.
  15. ↑ J. Habermas: Some difficulties in trying to convey theory and practice . In: J. Habermas (Ed.): Theory and Practice . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1978.
  16. ↑ see Kurt Lewin 1953, p. 280.
  17. ↑ cf. Rainer Schnell, Paul B. Hill, Elke Esser: Methods of empirical social research . 6th edition. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 1999, ISBN 978-3-486-25043-5 , p. 88.
  18. ↑ Although a number of empirical studies have come up with quite encouraging results, meta-studies on the effects of action research in the school pedagogical or didactic field are still pending. The case studies reconstructed in: B. Wolfensberger, J. Piniel, C. Canella, R. Kyburz-Graber: The challenge of involvement in reflective teaching , for example, show a mixed picture . Three case studies from a teacher education project on conducting classroom discussions on socio-scientific issues . In: Teaching and Teacher Education , 26 (3), 2010, doi : 10.1016 / j.tate.2009.10.007 , pp. 714–721 (English).
  19. ↑ One example is Jean-Pol Martin , who worked exclusively on the project ( learning through teaching ) between 1981 and 2018 . Jean-Pol Martin: The project 'learning through teaching' - didactic research in the field of tension between theory and self-experienced practice. In: M. Liedtke (Hrsg.): Gymnasium: new forms of teaching and education. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1998, pp. 151-166. With Martin, however, it is a special case, because he does not let practitioners document their lessons, as traditional action researchers do as "critical friends", but he researches his own practice as a teacher, so is both the subject and the object of his own research . The question arises whether the same person is able to observe and scientifically research himself as an object with the necessary distance.
  20. ^ Herbert Altrichter, Peter Gstettner: Action Research - A Closed Chapter in the History of German Social Science? . In: Sozialwissenschaftliche Literatur-Rundschau 26, 1993.
  21. ↑ cf. z. B. Werner Fricke: Action Research in Difficult Times . In: Milena Jostmeier, Arno Georg, Heike Jacobsen (eds.): Shaping social change . VS, Wiesbaden 2014, pp. 213-235; Olav Eikeland: Why should Mainstream Social Researchers Be Interested in Action Research? In: International Journal of Action Research 3 (1 + 2), 2007, pp. 38-64 (English); Björn Gustavsen: Dialogue and Development. Social Science for Social Action: toward organizational renewal . Van Gorcum, Mastricht 1992 (English).
  22. ↑ be played continuously progress and results of this work-related activities in the International Journal of Action Research in publishing Barbara Budrich . Cf. currently the synopsis in Werner Fricke, Hilde Wagner (ed.): Democratization of work. New approaches to humanization and economic democracy . VSA, Hamburg 2012.
  23. ↑ Emery / Thorsrud (1982)
  24. ↑ Gustavsen (1992)
  25. ↑ All project reports were published in the series “Humanisation of Working Life” by Campus Verlag, Frankfurt. See also the overview in Nina Kleinöder (2016): “Humanization of Work”. Literature report on the “Research Program for the Humanization of Working Life”, Hans Böckler Foundation, Working Paper Research Funding No. 8, February 2016, 66 pages. http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_fofoe_WP_008_2016.pdf
  26. ↑ see Georg, Arno, Gerd Peter u. a. (2016): Self-worth feeling. Psychosocial stress in change management processes . VSA, Hamburg, pp. 16 and 182 ff.
  27. ↑ Fricke / Wagner (eds.) (2012)

literature

  • Werner Fricke , Hilde Wagner (ed.): Democratization of work. New approaches to humanization and economic democracy . VSA, Hamburg 2012.
  • Fritz Vilmar , Karl Sattler: Economic Democracy and Humanization of Work , European Publishing House, Cologne 1978.
  • Herbert Altrichter, Peter Posch: Teachers research their lessons - lesson development and lesson evaluation through action research . Fourth edition. Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2007, ISBN 3-7815-1414-5 (English version: Herbert Altrichter, Allan Feldman, Peter Posch, Bridget Somekh: Teachers Investigate Their Work. An Introduction To Action Research Across The Professions. 2nd edition. Routledge , London 2008. ISBN 0-415-37794-3 ).
  • D. Burns: Systemic Action Research: A strategy for whole system change. Policy Press, Bristol 2007.
  • Elliott Jacques : The Changing Culture of a Factory. A Study of Authority and Participation in an Industrial Setting . Tavistock Publications, London 1951.
  • Kurt Lewin : crime research and minority problems . In: Gertrud Weiß Lewin (Ed.): The solution of social conflicts. Selected Treatises on Group Dynamics . 1st edition. Christian-Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1953. Before: The solution of social conflicts . Christian Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1948.

Web links

Wiktionary: Action research  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations