No abstract

Action Research Journal (ARJ) continues to embrace many paradigms of inquiry. Given the call of our time, we have refreshed our commitment to emphasizing Action Research for Transformations (ART) and, in the process of doing our work, to develop and convene a global community of practice under the larger umbrella of ARþ Foundation (www.ActionResearchPlus.com) which provides resources for all on the ART path. Because of our decision to emphasize Action Research that is transformative, we have refreshed the journal's seven "quality choicepoints." ARJ for ART's sake Civilizational, structural transformation-transforming our social, political and economic systems-is now urgent. The Associate Editors at ARJ, i.e. those charged with developing papers for publication, have issued a call to action researchers to better tie efforts, practice and inquiry, to this challenge. ART helps articulate the heart of the ART (Bradbury et al., 2019). ART means that ARJ's knowledge creation:

No abstract

Planned international development-Official Development Assistance-pretends to address complex, intergenerational problems. The pretense is endemic to, and necessary for, the continuation of the development enterprise, frequently leading to docile projects. Official Development Assistance's methodologies and methods are ill-matched for confronting such problems, while those of action research are well-suited to the task. Yet Official Development Assistance and action research are only infrequent and ephemeral bedmates. Research from five sites on three continents reveals five lessons for untaming aid through action research: (1) plan and develop programming iteratively and over long time frames to offer meaningful support to people's lives, (2) develop new connective tissue and relational capital, (3) commit to inquiry and learning in specific contexts, (4) incrementally confront culturally embedded practice in a safe and feasible manner, and (5) use methodology to develop safe and participatory spaces that engage tacit and explicit perspectives and ways of knowing. This article, the introductory essay to the Action Research Journal's special issue, ''Development, Aid, and Social Transformation,'' argues that adoption of these five practices could help untame Official Development Assistance and make it more powerful, ethical, and transformative.

Behind Action Research for Transformations (ART) and the Action Research Journal's seven quality choice points nestle both a plea and demand for equity. If equity is about resources made accessible to or concretely claimed by structurally marginalized groupso they may achieve outcomes akin to privileged groups which get such resources as a matter of course-three shifts in resources are essential: shifts in power, shifts in cultural hegemony, and shifts in and among organizations. PowerPower is most usefully conceptualized in ART as a relational process, not as a thing that one person or group has and others do not. It "is not simply. . . the ability of one person to realize claims made upon another" but rather:We are dealing with structural power, with abilities that flow from positions in a set of relations, positions that are strategically endowed with the power to control behavior by governing access to natural and social resources. (Wolf, 1990, p. 375) Yet, as many theorists of power remind us, power is also productive, useful, and necessary in social groups: much good in human society is done through enactments of power. The flows and effects of power are a shared social accomplishment that, for groups that experience oppression, is both about solidifying the power they have currently and gaining additional legitimacy to shape new arrangements for how power creates societal benefits. ART requires us to influence two shifts in power. First, it must create opportunities for disenfranchised groups to understand and exercise the power they already possess. Second, it must create opportunities for dominant groups to grasp the power they need to distribute, and do it. Action research that fails these two tests may be useful, but it is not likely to be transformational.