Abstract:

If you take even the most casual look at action research, probably two key things stand out about it. First, it usually proceeds with something of an experimental design; and, second, something of a cult has grown up about it. If you go into the "how-to-do-it" literature of program evaluation, you emerge with the impression that its authors, at least, believe that it is a totally independent field of social research, whose problems and methods are uniquely special.