Introduction to Action Research presents a s trong case for action research to be regarded as a form of s cientific inquiry of greater validity than the more mainstre am forms of social science research. '

Table of Contents

PART ONE: WHAT IS ACTION RESEARCH? Introduction Action Research, Diversity and Democracy A History of Action Research Action Research Cases from Practice 1 The Stories of Stongfjorden and Mondragon PART TWO: SCIENCE, EPISTEMOLOGY AND PRACTICE IN ACTION RESEARCH Scientific Methods and Action Research An Epistemological Foundation for Action Research The 'Friendly Outsider' Knowledge and Skills in Action Research Local Knowledge, Co-Generative Research and Narrativity PART THREE: VARIETIES OF ACTION RESEARCH PRAXIS: LIBERATING HUMAN POTENTIAL Action Research Cases from Practice II Pragmatic Action Research Empowerment and Liberation Southern Participatory Action Research and Contemporary Feminist Analyses Action Science and Organizational Learning Human Inquiry, Co-Operative Inquiry and Action Inquiry Educational Strategies Participatory Evaluation and Participatory Rural Appraisal

Author Biography

Davydd J. Greenwood, Ph.D., At Cornell University for 37 years, Greenwood has conducted action research in the Spanish Basque Country, Spain's La Mancha region, in Upstate New York, and in research universities, Greenwood has published Industrial Democracy as Process: Participatory Action Research in the Fagor Cooperative Group of Mondragon (with cooperative members); Teaching Participatory Action Research in the University in Studies in Continuing Education (with the students from the class), and Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change, first and second editions (with Morten Levin), Action Research: The Scandinavian Action Research Development Program, and articles and chapters in the Action Research, the International Journal of Action Research, the Handbook of Qualitative Inquiry, and the Handbook of Action Research. Davydd is working with the CIREM Foundation in Spain on a small business development program based on action research strategies including the construction of small business networks that create co-generative learning arenas. This involves two small business networks in Spain's La Mancha region, one in Catalonia, and one in Madrid. Davydd is in the fifth year of an international project on the future of public higher education institutions with a particular emphasis on strategies for defending the "public goods" universities once created through action research strategies that engage cross-disciplinary stakeholder teams with external university constituencies in creating co-generative learning/action arenas that could reinvigorate public and political support for higher education. Morten Levin is a partner in both of these projects and Davydd and Morten are now initiating a period of examination of the concepts and practices of academic freedom from an action research perspective.