Involved in Praxis and Analytical at a Distance

Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSystemic practice and action research Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
Main Authors Levin, Morten, Ravn, Johan E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer Nature B.V 01.02.2007
Subjects
Action research
Knowledge
Problem solving
Research methodology
Researchers
Science
Social research
Social sciences
Studies
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Summary:Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in the pursuit of solving important local problems, while at the same time combining this with a scientific knowledge generation process. In other words, we discuss the conditions for research when researchers go native to solve problems and reflect along with participants. We have been able to find several sources of arguments supporting such a research strategy, but our search for methodological guidance on how to act as an engaged researcher has been in vain. What does it take for a researcher to do engaged research? The set of articles in this special issue all address certain aspects of this challenge. Some discuss the researcher's path towards deep field engagement, whereas others discover various challenges and skills involved in engagement, and the task of developing scientific knowledge based on engaged research. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1094-429X
1573-9295
DOI:10.1007/s11213-006-9045-1