Collaboration, movement and change: An intra-active action research approach

Abstract

This article elaborates an intra-active approach to action research, with examples from a recently started action research project carried out in collaboration with three preschools. The aim of the article is to contribute to the discussion about how practice-based research for change can take shape. Therefore, these questions are asked: Which concepts are central and what is produced in intra-active action research? Which potentialities for change are enabled via an intra-active approach to action research? New materialism theories, starting with Barad, are used to rethink action research, focusing on collaboration, movements, and change. An analysis workshop within the project, starting in circular and horizontal movements, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari through the work of Lenz Taguchi, is revisited. The intra-actions in the workshop produce both generative and undermining processes. Therefore, the intra-active action research approach implies that staying in the complexity of practices, rather than seeking to reduce the ‘messiness’, holds potentialities for change that unwind from the middle.

The role of the researcher in participatory processes: A study of learning about place and place attachment in communities

“…Such a process legitimizes the role of the researcher and maintains the relationship between researcher and research object as a two-way relationship. We relate our way of thinking about research to Frid's (2021) contribution on an intraactive action research approach. Residing in the complexity of practice is about trying to stay immersed in the muddle; what Donna Haraway (2016) has referred to as "staying with the trouble."…”

“…Considerable attention has been directed towards participatory research, displaying a broad spectrum of research ambitions in social work as well as in other disciplines, from action research (Eikeland, 2012;Westoby et al, 2019) to community-based participatory research (Donnelly et al, 2019) and practice-oriented research (Frid, 2021;Sørensen & Wilms Boysen, 2021). This article contributes to the discussion about community-based participatory research (Donnelly et al, 2019) and about the researcher's own attachment to the place of research.…”