Social Action Research Research Articles

Social Action in the Movie Alkhallat+: Talcott Parson's Structural Functional Study

This research describes the results of the representation of social action in the film Alkhallat+ (2023) directed by Fahad Alammari and began airing on January 19, 2023 on Neflix. This research will provide an empirical understanding of the impact of actions taken in the social life of the community and contain the results of the representation of the form of social action. In the process of analyzing this research study, the researcher used the modern literary sociology approach of Talcott Parson's study with data collection techniques using listening and recording techniques in the Alkhallat + movie. The analysis of qualitative data is carried out by revealing the forms of social action using the AGIL scheme concept theory and interpreting the impact of social action into the classification of representation values. The findings of the data analysis of this social action research are in the form of 3 representation values classified into three parts, namely the representation of love, discrimination, and solving problems with the law. This study opens new insights related to the form of representation of social action, and provides a broader view of the concept of the AGIL scheme in the study of literary sociology for writers who want to conduct similar research or add new findings.

Chasing balloons as scientific practice: On transformative cocreation and epistemic ethics of care in the emerging field of youth citizen social science

How does including youth in research within a citizen social science framework challenge and transform our participatory action research practices and approaches? Through a storying journey we unravel how the training and subsequent conducting of a co-creative research process with young citizen social scientists are evolving from a cacophony of traditions, approaches and disciplines, among them youth participatory action research, action research in organizations, citizen science and social anthropology. The article is based on empirical research with a group of young people in Oslo, Norway, involved in a large collaborative citizen social science project on social inclusion of youth in Europe. We have witnessed closely how an epistemic ethics of care is integral to securing the epistemic justice of youth and argue that citizen social science can promote both epistemic justice and epistemic abundance by including youth in all parts of a rigorous research process that produces new scientific knowledge. Yet, we found that performing an ethics of care is (close to) impossible within the current conditions and structures of social sciences, as our ideals and views on what science is, delimit the practices of relational care necessary for inclusive processes. The implications of our findings call for an ethics of care framework for both citizen social science and action research practices.

Parrhesia in Qualitative Research: Unveiling Truths, the Critique of Power, and Embracing Risk

This work examines a range of qualitative research approaches used in the field of social sciences, including phenomenology, content analysis, action research, critical research, and critical discourse analysis. This argument underscores the significance of adopting a Foucauldian lens, which serves to question the binary opposition between realist and idealist underpinnings in the realm of research methodologies. The text provides an introduction to the notion of “fearless speech” or parrhesia, which is distinguished by its frankness, truth-telling, and acknowledgment of risk. Furthermore, it underscores the inherent danger associated with truth-telling, particularly when confronting those in positions of authority. This study seeks to provide insights into the ethical and methodological dilemmas faced by urban sociology and war and peace studies. The article finishes by establishing a connection between the qualitative research principles and research conducted on the phenomenon of urban fabric destruction. In that way, it is an attempt not only to question the theoretical basis but also to influence the ethical aspects of qualitative research in the intricate context of urban fabric destruction.

Critical Social Participatory Action Research for Conscientization: Pedagogies and Findings from Xochimilco

The Small Scale Food Production for Cultural Preservation and Economic Inclusion project is a critical social participatory action research project that utilizes critical pedagogies to facilitate spaces of learning and research where power differentials are both recognized and dismantled. The process of consciousness raising those results is an example of applied conscientization. The key pedagogical strategies explained in this article include co-constructed knowledge, critical praxis, a relational design rooted in dialogue and ongoing project partnership.

Societal Transformation Through Social Entrepreneurial Action Research

As communities experience social problems that negatively impact residents’ health and well-being, there is a growing need for unique, innovative solutions to address them. Researchers are increasingly studying social problems, especially those that require localized solutions. This article introduces Social Entrepreneurial Action Research (SEAR), a research process that uses social enterprises to advance an iterative cycle of research insights leading to business innovations. SEAR is driven by community stakeholders, grounded in research, and focused on ongoing societal transformation. This article describes the SEAR process and its theoretical foundation and demonstrates its application using a case study that provides illustrative examples from a social enterprise as it went through the stages of the process. SEAR is a method that can be used to address social problems with localized solutions that are community-based and long-lasting, and that result in societal transformation.

Supporting WFN Collective Social Entrepreneurship Through Social Movement Learning and Critical Participatory Action Research

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the complexities and connections between women, femme, and nonbinary (WFN) collective social entrepreneurs, social movement learning (SML), and critical participatory action research (CPAR) within the fields of adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD). WFN collective social entrepreneurship serves as a reaction and solution to system failures, by creating supportive learning environments. We discuss the potential of social movement learning (SML) in these collectives, offering marginalized learners opportunities for skill development, knowledge sharing, and social impact efforts. This paper proposes using CPAR as a research approach to support social movements and amplify marginalized voices. CPAR can illuminate the development and learning networks of WFN social entrepreneur collectives and emphasize the importance of inclusive and intersectional approaches in entrepreneurial education and research within AE/HRD.

Community-Based Participatory Research and Fat Studies: Tensions and Alignments

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an overarching methodology taken up across various disciplines. Rather than a specific approach, CBPR encompasses varied action-based methodologies. While many disciplines use CBPR methodologies in their work, Fat Studies has yet to broadly create research that uses CBPR methodologies. Fat Studies counters many dominant fields that examine and pathologize the body. Rather than viewing Fat as a site of moral panic and concern, Fat Studies values the subjectivity, fluidity, and embodied experience of what it means to be Fat. As CBPR methodologies share a commitment towards critical, emancipatory, and social action research, the potential intersection with Fat Studies is noteworthy, however limited literature at this intersection exists. In this article, we highlight the alignments and tensions between CBPR and Fat Studies while offering future directions for scholars at this intersection.

Mobilising Against Insecurity, Engaging in Local Civic Life: The Collective Action of Chinese and South-East Asian Inhabitants in a Paris Suburb

Based on a social action research, this article discusses the collective action taken by inhabitants of Chinese and South-East Asian origin in a north-eastern suburb of Paris: targeted by violent attacks, these residents occupied the public space at the base of their residences and demanded the intervention of public authorities. In recounting the different steps of the mobilisation, this article demonstrates how an ethnocentric dynamic was created around security issues and how an ethno-spatial minority was formed within the neighbourhood and the city. It also shows in what conditions this ethno-security action transforms itself into an associative and citizen commitment within the neighbourhood and the city and modifies the perceptions of the actors, their capacity for action and their relations with the neighbourhood and with politics. At the intersection of several fields of research, including the sociology of migration, urban sociology and political sociology, the article shows how ordinary inhabitants of Chinese and South-East Asian origin participate in their neighbourhood's local civic life.

Social science as social action to address inequalities

AbstractIn its most recent report, the Academy of the Social Sciences Australia (ASSA, 2021: 10) identified social inequality as a “grand challenge” for the social sciences, arguing that social scientists have a pivotal role to play in “understanding, addressing and guiding us towards a narrowing of a two‐tier society.” Nevertheless, the social sciences continue to be regularly positioned as “soft” and esoteric in relation to the natural sciences, while also sustaining disproportionate funding cuts. In this article, we—a multidisciplinary group of social science researchers forming part of the Inequalities and Social Action Research Cluster based at The University of Queensland (Australia)—draw on the existing literature and our diverse experiences to reflexively consider how academic social scientists might play the active role that ASSA foresees to address social inequalities into the future. This includes by countering the inherent imperialism of the Western academy itself. We explore the roles, barriers and tensions that social scientists face and conclude by offering a framework of key strategies to improve the translational impacts of social science research for addressing social inequalities.

Sociology of Max Weber: Discussions on the Method of Understanding

Weber, who systematized the science of sociology, brought the understanding method that can be used in social action research to sociology. Influenced by German idealism during the period when the methodologies of positive sciences dominated social sciences, Weber made the method of understanding suitable for sociological research based on the ideas of William Dilthey. This research is essential in providing a new perspective to the literature by analyzing the method of understanding, which has many disagreements based on the debates. The main purpose of this study is to try to make the understanding method more comprehensible sociologically by referring to the analyzes in the literature. The research was prepared following the literature review method and expanded by scanning the Weberian literature. Due to the richness of the literature, this study is limited to several works in which Weber uses the method of understanding. The works selected for the research were determined as "Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism", "Methodology of social sciences", and "Sociology of religion". The reason for choosing these works is that they are accepted in the sociology literature as the main sources for which Weber's understanding method is used. As a result of the research, it was found that Weber's understanding method was divided into two types such as direct observational and explanatory understanding. In addition, two basic definitions are used for the understanding method. These definitions have been interpreted as an empathic analysis of human behavior and directing the researcher's work by putting himself in someone else's shoes. The main reasons for Weber's choosing to use the understanding method are to criticize the scientific methods dominated by the positive sciences, to create his research path of the social sciences, to bring the interpretive and observational research method to sociology, and to put Dilthey's philosophical approach on a scientific plane. In addition, it is the search for a method that can be used in analyzing historical studies in terms of social action. Weber used the understanding method over certain ideal types and chose the understanding method as the main way to create ideal types. As a result, in addition to the fact that the method of understanding should set a path for sociological studies, it has also been reached that the method of understanding does not only express the understanding of the subject through the mind. While the method of understanding offers a wide range of methods to the researchers in this respect, it has also been effective in breaking the effect of positive sciences on social sciences.

From action to theory building: an action research of rural social work practice in China

ABSTRACT In recent years, action research has gradually been accepted by social work educators and practitioners in Mainland China. Some have tried integrating action research into social work education and practice. However, many people only learn the form but do not seriously uphold the spirit of action research and understand its mission of knowledge building. Therefore, this article first introduces the key elements of participatory action research (PAR) and then uses a PAR project of rural social work as an example to demonstrate how researchers collaborate with frontline practitioners and local villagers to co-create knowledge in pursuit of a practical solution to problems of rural development in post-reform China. Finally, the paper will conclude with a theory of rural-urban alliance which has been generated in the PAR process. I hope this article will become the text for dialogues within the social work action research community in Mainland China.

Penanganan Anak Berkelainan Penyandang Autis Melalui Komunikasi Orang Tua Sebagai Kunci Keberhasilan

Degenerative disease in general has always been a political problem related to how to deal with it and the state is present. This political issue is related to problems and procedures from the very beginning, where from the time of diagnosis of a disease to how to determine the future of people with disabilities or disabilities in the future. Since the parents received an expert diagnosis that their child was suffering from an autistic disease, since then life has changed. The illness suffered by a person after undergoing the process of being diagnosed by an expert will sooner or later affect the dynamics that affect all those affected towards their lives and themselves. Autism, a behavioral disorder that occurs when children are growing and developing, will affect families and family resources, especially when children grow and develop towards school age. This study wants to explore how parents handle it, how the suffering of a mother raising a child with autism, her ups and downs, and her communicative actions in raising her child. This research is a qualitative research, the type of research is case study, the social paradigm is social definition, data collection is through observation, interviews, and documentation. Data analysis using the Interactive Miles and Hubermann model with steps including Data Collection, Data reduction, Data display, data conclusion. The results of communicative social action research are needed to overcome children with disabilities, special needs such as people with autism.

Social Work and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR): Past, Present, and Future.

The social work profession has made tremendous contributions to youth well-being, laying the foundation for social welfare systems and child protection laws. However, deficit-based constructions of youth are deeply engrained in the profession. Social work researchers have called for attention to critical approaches like youth participatory action research (YPAR). YPAR has an action-oriented epistemology and engages youth as coresearchers, providing an opportunity to shift social work research and practice paradigms. Yet, social work scholars lag behind cognate disciplines in adopting YPAR. This article examines challenges that have stymied YPAR in social work. The authors review the historical roots of the profession and its relationship to youth; examine present challenges, including social work's training and career progression; and make suggestions for the future, calling social work to affirm our values by reevaluating the way we do research on youth, the way we train future social workers, and the paradigms driving our practice.

Applying Self-Directed Groupwork and Social Action Research Methodology with francophone parents of trans children and youth in Rural Quebec

Parental support is an important protective factor in preventing suicide among trans youth. However, parents often struggle to accept their child’s gender transition. Having access to a group and to meeting other parents facilitates the acceptance process, but support groups are rare and even more so outside urban areas. The research project discussed in this article was developed to understand specifically the experience of parents of francophone trans youth living in rural and remote communities in Quebec. A Self-Directed Group approach (Mullender, Ward and Fleming 2013), combined with Social Action Research (Author et al. 2015) was initiated to offer a platform for parents to explore the specificities of parenting a trans child in rural francophone Quebec. Parents were recruited through social and traditional media and a series of group meetings was planned to collect data and as well as to facilitate the parents' mobilization. Despite applying the Self-Directed Groupwork principles and process, many challenges were encountered, stimulating a number of reflections on the use of self-directed group work and social action in remote geographical areas. This paper explores some of those challenges and discusses a possible way forward for research.

Improving Life' as a North Star for Research

This paper evaluates the impact of research centered on enhancing the quality of life. It presents examples of research in which the essential question, pivoting around altruistic possibilities, set in motion long-term outcomes that extended beyond the life of the project. The examples listed occur across the disciplines, in engineering, science, social science, social action research, education, and communications technologies. The human processes that redounded to human progress pointed to the concept that research may matter most when it sustains life, improves the quality of life or otherwise enhances the cohesion and destiny of humans and other species, and that continually holding this as an ideal has the potential to shape the researcher, the research field, and human progress itself. Findings include the long-term outcomes accrued during and beyond the lifetime of the researchers involved. Conclusions are reinforced by transdisciplinary trends inaugurated as the result of research.

Social justice and action research: can we collaboratively create a new social movement with social justice at the centre?

ABSTRACT Ideas about social justice are influenced by the ontological and epistemological assumptions of the worldview in which they are located. Since the seventeenth century, the dominant worldview in the western hemisphere has been shaped by the separatist and deterministic principles of classical Newtonian science. During the twentieth century, with the advent of quantum physics, these principles have been contested from within science itself, indicating that the universe may instead be inter-relational, entangled and participatory. A historical investigation demonstrates how, despite findings from modern science, the Newtonian worldview has become deeply embedded in the western psyche, including in neoliberal politics, education, and educational research. As a counter-narrative, an alternative worldview is proposed, which is grounded in the ontological assumption of a participatory consciousness, with implications for ethics and social justice. Supporting a call for the creation of a new story which negates the prevailing neoliberal narrative, I look at ways in which advocates of social justice can, using an integration of first, second and third person approaches to action research, collaboratively initiate a new social movement, with intellectual depth, and with social justice at its centre.

Social innovation participatory action research for empowerment of marginalized people

AbstractMarginalization of poor and uneducated residents has led to fundamental social damage in Iran's large cities, which is manifest in a persistent culture of poverty and lack of access to opportunities and services. Empowering these people is not possible with government resources, and it requires the use of empowerment methods, such as social innovation‐based solutions. The purpose of the present study was to propose a social innovation cycle for the marginalized individuals in parts of Tehran, Iran (Farahzad and Khavarshahr) as a sustainable solution to empower them by creating jobs for them. The present study was conducted using the participatory action research methodology to analyze key activities undertaken during the “poultry self‐sufficiency” social innovation cycles in four phases: 1. generating ideas by understanding the needs and identifying potential solutions; 2. developing, prototyping, and piloting the ideas; 3. assessing, scaling up, and diffusing the good ideas; and 4. learning and evolving. The results showed that social innovation has the most significant effect when actors in different parts of society contribute and cooperate. According to the results obtained in this study, “poultry self‐sufficiency” social innovation lifts the marginalized out of poverty, and the empowerment process helps them to participate in the community.

Correction to: Social Innovation Action Research for Lifestyle Improvement of Child Labour in Tehran (Social Innovation’s Idea on Child Labour Lifestyle)

Correction to: Social Innovation Action Research for Lifestyle Improvement of Child Labour in Tehran (Social Innovation’s Idea on Child Labour Lifestyle)

Social Innovation Action Research for Lifestyle Improvement of Child Labour in Tehran (Social Innovation’s Idea on Child Labour Lifestyle)

Child labour has become an ever growing social problem in developing countries like Iran. This study presents a strategy for solving this problem regarding human development and their capabilities through identifying child labour in Tehran. The approach is the idea of production, proliferation and distribution of medicinal plants, which has been presented by Salam Social Innovation Center. As an action research inquiry process, the study has adapted this idea to the stages of social innovation. In the project, 46 street children with their families participated. The results demonstrate their empowerment and satisfaction; their self-sufficiency is also estimated in near future.

Peacebuilding through Public Participation Mechanisms in Local Government: The Case Study of Mbizana Local Municipality, South Africa

This article asserts the importance of public participation in local government, through social action research, in order to achieve good governance. We examine how bad local governance negatively impacts the socio-economic development trajectory of communities. Based on fieldwork conducted in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, this article illustrates the transformative role participatory processes and good governance played as peacebuilding mechanisms to achieve positive peace in the Mbizana local municipality. The municipality’s geography spans from deep rural areas to the urban central business district (CBD). A mixed qual-quant methodology with a phased rollout was applied to engage the local government and communities involved, and target with precision the lived reality of the residents. The findings of the study point to the transformative nature of the local participatory processes that entailed building confidence between the municipal authorities, the NGO Good Governance Africa (GGA) and the Mbizana community, and new ideas on how to facilitate public participation. Our conclusion is that civil society organisations should build trust with local authorities in communities for public participation interventions to be successful. This outlook differs to perceiving local authorities as a threat or barrier to direct interventions. The combination of participatory processes and good governance restored the community’s confidence in the municipality through shared governance information and capacity building. This hybrid approach can be replicated and applied to promote sustainable peace in communities that face similar challenges.