TO ADD: BOOK Social Construction and Research as Action
Social Construction and Research as Action.
Gergen, K.J. and Gergen, M.M., 2013. Social Construction and Research as Action. The SAGE Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice, p.159.
Gergen and Gergen (2013)
(Gergen and Gergen, 2013)
Action orientated research has become a major alternative to positivist conceptions and practices of research (p.159).
The growth of action orientated research is simultaneous with the emergence of social constructionist views of knowledge (p.160).
The phrase social construction, typically refers to a tradition of scholarship that traces the origin of knowledge, meaning or understanding to human relationships. The term constructivism is sometimes used interchangeably, but most scholarship associated with constructivism views processes inherent in the individual mind, as opposed to human relationships, as the origins of peoples constructions of the world (p.160)
Social construction may be traced to collective scholarship in the history of science, the sociology of knowledge, and social studies of science. Here the major focus is on the social processes giving rise to knowledge (p.60).
The most generative idea emerging from the constructionist dialogues is that what we take to be knowledge of the world and self finds it's origins in human relationships (p.161).
What we take to be true as opposed to false, objective as opposed to subjective, scientific as opposed to mythological, rational as opposed to irrational, moral as opposed to immoral is brought into being through historically and culturally situated social processes (p,161).
In effect, propose the constructionists, no one arrangement of words is more objective are accurate of the world than any other. To be sure, accuracy may be achieved within a given community or tradition, according to its rules and practices (p.161).
One major way in which action practices have been cut away from traditional positive research in their positioning of the researcher (p.165).
The shift from individualist to collectivist orientation to research is in full harmony with the constructionist account of knowledge formation (p.166).
Constructionism recognizes the community as opposed to the individual as the fundamental source of intelligibility, and thus the origin of all that stands as rational or true (p.166).
Action researchers extend the implications of this view in 3 ways. First, they do not work in separation from others, but with them, their efforts are fundamentally collaborative. They recognise the essential condition of interdependence of the success of their work. Second, they do not sustain the traditional separation of communities between the professional community and those they study. Rather than creating barriers of incomprehension, they conjoin community and professional interests, intelligibility and outcomes. Finally, in their suturing these otherwise isolated communities, action researchers also undermine the incipient creation of knowledge hierarchies. Researchers and those whom they work share whatever they can bring in the way of knowledge to the initiative at hand. Different forms of knowing may be useful in different ways, thus favouring a pluralist and instrumentalist view of knowledge (p.166).
In sharp contrast to this individualist orientation to research, action enquiry has its very inception laid stress on processes of collaboration. Heron and Reason (2001; 2006) specifically emphasise action research as a practice of co-operative inquiry, a domain of practices that researchers 'with people rather than on people'. As many believe, the emphasis on collaborating with one's subjects has altered the fundamental understanding of the nature of social research (cf. Bopp and Bopp, 1998; Esteva and Prakash, 1998; Pyrch and Castillo, 2001) (p.165).
Action orientated research and constructionism invites the development of relational theories (p.166).
Action research provides to the theorist a rich range of material stimulating further theory development (p.166).
Constructionist theory lends rich and extensive support to movements toward action research (p. 167).
Very often action research emerges in the context of oppression and injustice. Out of value convictions researchers offer themselves to groups whose cause they wish to champion (p.167).
In this context, it is useful to reflect on the potentials of various forms of action research. Rather than joining the cause that seems so obviously right, consideration might usefully be given to forms of inquiry that more fully recognise the existence of conflicting goods (p.168).
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