Book Review
Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry & Practice
Peter Reason & Hilary Bradbury
ISBN: 0-7619 66-45-5 2001 445 pages Sage, London
In the tradition of the Sage handbook series this is a landmark book because it redefines contemporary action research. The editors use 'action research' as an umbrella term to bring together the work of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that have emerged from different disciplines, different traditions, and different philosophies across a variety of political commitments. The main criterion for inclusion in the handbook was a demonstrated approach to inquiry that was participative, grounded in experience and action-oriented.
At the outset it is important to state that this book is not a book for the novice action researcher. It is definitely not a 'how to do action research' book. In keeping with the aims of the handbook series, it orients the beginner to the different streams of action research and the kind of debates in which they are located. Thus we encounter arguments for action research as a socio-technical process, a strategy for race equality, a basis for feminist action, an emancipatory process informed by critical theory, a co-operative and participative style, a pragmatic approach to educative transformation, a humanistic method, a transpersonal technique, a socially-constructed practice, systems thinking in action, action learning and action science. Some chapters will feel familiar and some will challenge the worldview of the reader.
This introduction deserves a close reading because, while it meets the requirements to introduce, it also sets out the theoretical basis upon which the editors defend the promiscuity of the selection of authors representing very different traditions. The introduction also contains models that depict the characteristics of action research, the dimensions of a particular worldview and the resultant questions for validity and quality in inquiry of this nature.
The handbook is divided into four sections: Groundings, Practices, Exemplars and Skills. A helpful feature of the book is an 11-page section called Chapter Outlines that provides a summary of the content of each chapter.
The Groundings section provide different luminaries in action research an opportunity to take us on a historical tour of the development of their own particular school of thought. These tours traverse not only diverse philosophical and methodological beginnings but also show how action research has formed in different continents and disciplines. The Practices section demonstrates the various pre-occupations that have shaped different forms of action research – co-operative inquiry, the centrality of relationship building, the place of language, the place of ethnodrama and the place of technical knowledge and statistics. The section of Exemplars provides an opportunity to look over the shoulder of action researchers and learn how they make their way through the complexity of the challenges in their context. The contributions from various parts of the globe provide a tapestry of ideas and cultural complexities from information technology to photos and creative arts, mothering in Australia to indigenous knowledge. The final section on Skills provides some reflective accounts of dealing with the choices and subtleties of action research.
This is definitely a book of treasures to delve into and emerge enthused and encouraged.
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